Across the Galaxy
by Crystal Prime
Summary: Mina, a nerd and outcast, never fit in with her fellow humans. But what happens when she finds herself surrounded by beings that were anything but human?
1. Unexpected Destination

**Title:** Across the Galaxy

**Summary: **Mina Castina is just your average twenty year-old woman, struggling to find her place in the world. A nerd and outcast all her life, she is not surprised by her struggles in her social life even as she does well in her school work. For all her feelings of being out of place, she never expected to find a place she felt she belonged. Especially when that place is far from her own planet! And just two days before her birthday too.

**Characters: **Autobots. Decepticons. Velocitronians. Junkions. Mina Castina(OC). Possible others.

**Timeframe: **Exodus-Exiles. Possibly beyond.

**Note: **Originally, this was gonna start toward the end of Exodus, but a combination of a conversation with Sci-FiFan95 and ideas that I had already had has led to me deciding to go through with those ideas and start when Orion is still Orion. That is what happens at times when I do not start a story right when I get the idea. The idea morphs into something better! And longer... *grin*

**Idea Origin: **I always wanted to do a story where a human goes to Cybertron. I actually started one once upon a time ago(like a year and a half ago), set in the War for Cybertron game, but I didn't like it. So now I have a new and improved version, that I came up with while reading Exiles. I'm starting it just before Exodus starts. And I haven't read all of the book yet, but I have read through all of Exiles and it does not go on through the arrival to Earth, so it will be going beyond what the books have. I have been looking forward to writing this story for a long time.

**A/N: **I am aware I had written a side story to A Galaxy-Wide Search, the original idea. As of now, it is an alternate universe to the main story. I hope you guys aren't upset about that.

**A/N2: **I hope you all like it!

**Chapter 1: Unexpected Destination**

_Journal Entry #1: Plans_

_Have you ever had big plans that you were very excited for? That you felt like you would die if they got ruined? Well that is my case at the moment. You see, it is my birthday in a couple days. And I get a treat this year. I am going to be going to Winter Jam to see my favorite bands play live music!_

_Needless to say, I am very excited. I may not be a social butterfly, but that does not mean I cannot enjoy the awesomeness that is music. Especially when one of the bands playing is Sanctus Real._

_That is right. You did not misread me! Sanctus Real is playing at Winter Jam! The very same that I am going to in two days! It is so exciting!_

_~Mina Castina_

**~Ohio University-Chillicothe Branch. January 26, 2012~ **

_I'm as eloquent as an elephant_

_About as headstrong as the_

_Mighty King Kong on a rampage_

_Throwing airplanes_

_I can't believe you haven't gone away_

_I am difficult, argumentative_

_About as thick skulled as the_

_Dinosaur bones on a display_

_In a glass case_

_I can't believe you haven't run away_

The song played in my ears from my iPod as I walked up the walk to the school. It was one of my favorite songs by Sanctus Real, Eloquent. I was headed to my work, which would be followed with my Tuesday-Thursday class and then more work.

_It must be different through your eyes_

_Because you look at me like it's the first time_

_That you've ever seen my face_

_I'm preoccupied with a crowded mind_

_I get off track like a train_

_Rolling back to the future_

_Never too sure who'll be here_

_When I come back around_

_But I'm finding out_

I sighed when I reached the Fish Bowl and could take my backpack off my shoulders to set it down in a chair. I rolled my shoulders to try to relieve them of the soreness carrying a backpack full of books and a laptop gave them. Usually on Thursdays I only carried my text book for my one class and my laptop which was relatively small so it was light as well, which made it easy to carry around. Today, however, I had decided to bring along my sketchbook and colored pencils. And you would be amazed how much harder it is to walk up University Hill to the school with the added weight.

"Good morning," Jill, my friend and superior, said. Well, she was not my boss, but she was higher on the ladder than I was.

"Good morning," I said as cheerily as I could muster this early in the morning.

"How are you on this fine morning?" Jill asked.

"I am ok," I said, lifting my sunglasses to the top of my head and rubbing at my eyes. "Tired, but ok. How are you?" I asked as I let my sunglasses fall back over my eyes. I never took them off, especially around people I do not trust. I trusted Jill, but my job put me in contact with a lot of people I do not know.

"I'm good," Jill said. "Are you writing anything for the writing contest? Or the Glass Enclosure?"

There she goes again. "Not yet, still trying to come up with ideas," I said. I was not really one for contests, though I might write something for the book.

"You can think of something," Jill said. "You are a great writer, and very creative."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, trying to hide a smirk. I was not one for compliments, but I was proud of my writing skills. And it was not even what I did for a living. Yet. I did plan on publishing a book someday though.

I tilted my head as a thought came to me. "You know, I think people tend to take for granted the freedom we have in choosing what we do with our lives," I said, seemingly randomly.

"They do," Jill agreed. "What brought this on?"

"Oh, just a random observation," I said. "My mom does data entry every day and here I am doing something completely different. Sure I do some data entry here, but it is not the main thing I do and I do not do it every day. If I recall my history correctly, then there was a time when you were doomed to go into the same business as your parents, whether you wanted to or not."

"I can see what you mean," Jill said. "I think we just lose sight of that. We take for granted a lot of freedoms we have that people don't have even today in some countries."

I nodded. "I'm going to get some breakfast," I said and left the room before Jill turned it into a political conversation.

I sighed when I escaped before we started talking about the upcoming elections. It was not as if I did not have political views, I did. I just did not talk about them here. Everyone here were liberal Democrats. I was a conservative Republican. I knew I was not the only one, but mostly I was surrounded by liberals. It was not that I disagreed with everything they believed. I did believe there needed to be more equality between women and men, cause reality has it that there is not. If I were to get the same exact job as a man, the man would be paid more. There was no use pretending the gender bias was no longer around when it was.

They were my friends, but that did not change that I am a lot more conservative than anyone around here. I knew some thought my ideas were crazy, but I am not sorry that I believe abortion to be murder and that we should stick to the good values of the Bible. The country was founded on the Word of God and has fallen far from it in the hundreds of years since its foundation.

I sighed again, feeling much like the only cat in a room full of dogs I was not familiar with. I had nothing against them, but they made me nervous at times. Like one wrong step could have me right back in the outcast status I carried through grade school.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. _No, do not start thinking that way, _I mentally berated myself. _Positive thinking Mina. Just because you are the only Republican here does not mean you are alone._

"Hey, what can I do for you?" the student on shift at the café asked, making me realize I had made it to my destination.

"Hi," I greeted. "Can I get a small hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich?"

"It will be a few minutes on the breakfast sandwich, if that's ok," she said, putting in the figures on the cash register.

"Yeah," I nodded.

I handed her my debit card when she held her hand out for it. After she swiped it, I signed the receipt and she went to make the hot chocolate. My wait was about five minutes, which probably would have made some people annoyed, but I found one of the keys to staying sane in this world was having a lot of patience.

"Thank you," I said, accepting my order when it came. "Have a good day."

"Thank you," she said. "You have a good one too."

I nodded and headed back to the Learning Center. One nice thing about this place was that everyone was nice. They may occasionally call me crazy or weird, but it was not like they were wrong when they did. I did not mind. I enjoyed being the crazy and weird one. The world can call me crazy all they want, it will not change my beliefs. Besides, I always dared to be different. Despite everything, I was going to miss this place when I left. But I still had some months before that happened.

"Good morning," I said when I walked into the room to find that some of the other tutors had arrived now as well.

"Morning Mina," one of them said.

I held my hot chocolate up in a salute kind of thing and then headed to the table I had set my stuff down at. I sat down with my back to the window, since I had to face the door for when people came in for math tutoring so I didn't miss them, and spun the chair around to look out the window for a moment. The windows surrounded the Learning Center, including the wall that was to the library. They are what earned the place its nickname, the Fish Bowl. Looking out the floor-to-ceiling window to the outside, I could see the different students arriving for their first class of the day or early study time. This place was the home away from home for many of us here. We spent the majority of our time here, after all, rather than at our homes.

I turned back around, pulling my sketch pad out along with my colored pencils. I decided I would work on coloring some of my sketches during lax times today. Such as now. In fact, the whole morning was rather slow, a contrast to how it could be some mornings. A couple people came in for tutoring in math before I had to go to class, but my shift I had after class was quite busy. I tutored about seven different people, two of them at the same time, before my shift was over at seven at night. That wasn't counting the five that came in for a math higher than I could handle, but a different tutor was there to handle them.

"Have a good night," I said when my second shift was up. My coworkers that were still there each gave a small wave as I left, putting my headphones in my ears. I turned on some music to listen to on my way home.

_Why are we afraid of what people say_

_What they think about us_

_This is the way of cynical hearts_

_Learning to trust_

_Everyone is scared of feeling _

_Out of place_

_Break away the walls_

_Carry us to where we belong_

The world around me faded slightly from my perception as I focused on the music and on getting home. I was aware enough to know when I needed to move aside to avoid get hit by a car, since there were no sidewalks on the trek home, but if someone were to call to me it was unlikely I would hear them. Not that there was anyone around here who would anyway. I did not know many people around here yet.

_Journal Entry #2: Unexpected…_

_The day had gone by as normal as any Thursday had. So I was not expecting anything…strange to happen. In hindsight, perhaps that was my first mistake. _

_I only made it half way home before it happened._

_I was about to turn onto the street that would take me the rest of the way down the hill when a loud boom inserted itself over my music. Having not been expecting it, I must have jumped about five feet in the air before falling back toward the ground._

_I expected to land, which would be followed with a mini freak out as I tried to locate the source of the boom. I did not expect to keeping falling, with blue swirls dancing in my vision. For a moment I thought something had gotten on my visor-like sunglasses, but when I took them off I still saw the blue swirls and I could see the trees on the opposite side of the street fading to nothing._

_I think I passed out momentarily, because when I found myself opening my eyes, I definitely was not in Ohio anymore. In fact, I do not believe I am even on Earth anymore!_

_Where on Earth are there buildings so tall, I think they were made for giants?_

_Maybe I need to learn to expect the unexpected…_

_~Mina Castina_


	2. An Alien World

**A/N: **Update! Hope you guys like it! :)

**Author's Replies:**

**Sci-Fifan95: **Glad you liked it Sci. :)

**Devil-O-Angel: **Thanks!

**KayleeChiara: **Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed it.

**Mikeala the Cat: **Well, the update is here! :D

And now the chapter. :)

**Chapter 2: An Alien World**

_Journal Entry #3: Pet Shop?_

_Ok, now I know I am not on Earth. I took a closer look at one of those buildings. It had writing on it, but it was not anything I could recognize. If I stretched my imagination, I may have been able to pull off passing it off as some form of Japanese or Chinese. But I knew it was not either of them._

_That, and the door was huge! If I had the tallest stilts known to man-kind I would not be able to reach the controls for the door. Plus, who puts a keypad next to a door on what appeared to be a pet shop?_

_Yes. A pet shop._

_~Mina Castina_

I blinked, staring up at the large creature in the window to the building I had been inspecting. It stared down at me as well. I narrowed my eyes behind the visor, which I had quickly replaced on my face once I had realized I was not on Earth anymore. My iPod was safely in my pocket. I could not believe it. One moment I was walking home from school/work and the next I was on an alien planet.

I continued looking at the alien pet in the window. It was mechanical looking and was vaguely reminiscent of a cat, with its pointed ears, long tail and other feline-like features. What do you know? A robotic cat. With glowing yellow eyes. On an alien planet. It was all so absurd and intriguing at the same time. The scientific side of me wanted to take the creature apart, but it was quickly quenched when I reminded myself that it was very likely a living being, despite its mechanical appearance.

Despite the fact that the alien creature obviously intrigued me, the adventurer part of me won out and I went to go explore my new surroundings. It was not as if I could get a closer look at the creature anyway. Do not get me wrong. I was kind of afraid of exploring this unknown place. I mean, what would happen if I was discovered by the locals? What were they like? All I could really gather so far was that they were definitely way bigger than I was and had pets that were also a lot bigger than I was.

But the adventurous side of me would not let me cower in any place. Fear was not one of my road blocks, at least not one that could stop me. At least, in this case it was not one. I was too curious to be afraid. If nothing else, this would make for a good story when I got back home. If I ever got back home. I had no idea how I got here to begin with anyway. But at that particular moment, I was more focused on my surroundings than thoughts of home.

I heard footsteps and spun around, seeking out where the sound was coming from. It did not take long to locate the source. Coming from the way I had been walking from were two giant mechanical beings. And I do mean giant. They didn't even notice me as they walked by and when one of them put a foot down right next to me, I could tell that I was just short of being up to their ankle. I stared after the retreating forms, listening to the clicks and whirls that were obviously part of their language.

"Well, if this is not strange, then I do not know what is," I said to myself silently, hoping the two mechs, cause I somehow got the impression they were male, did not hear me.

I sighed when they continued on, clearly oblivious to me. The next thing I did was to continue with my exploration, now keeping close to the side of the buildings. After all, I did not feel particularly up to getting squished by the locals when they walked by without noticing me. No, I wanted to keep my life intact. And getting squished would set that goal so far back that it would fail miserably. Of course, that was obvious. But when in a strange and unknown situation I tended to note obvious things as much as not-so-obvious things.

One thing I noticed was that all of the mechs and the few females, what would be the term for them? Anyway I noticed that all of them were not really smiling. I heard nothing that sounded like laughter. And I also did not see any of what would probably be the equivalent of children. Did they not have children? Or were they simply not out and about? Were any of these guys happy?

As if in answer, I finally heard somebot make a noise that was different from the chattering around me. It was almost musical to my ears. It made me feel cheery and I immediately searched around for the noise, figuring I finally was hearing the joyous sound of laughter. I perked up when I found the source, a silver mech was standing next to a red, blue and silver one, body language telling me that it was him I had heard laugh. A grin was plastered on the mech's face as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder as he said something to him.

And then his attention wandered and he stopped, looking directly at me. He said something to his friend as I tilted my head. My view of the two got cut off a few times by the feet of passing mechs, but I knew the silver one had at least seen me. I could see them start to close the distance and I did not know what they intended to do. So instead of hanging around to find out, I took off as fast as my legs could take me. I could faintly hear what might have been a protest, followed by sounds that clearly meant at least one of them had picked up pace.

I felt a pain start to form in my side from running so hard already. I could endure though, I have done so in the past. I ignored the pain, something I could do hat my mom had asked me to teach her how in the past, and pushed myself as I dodged through the crowd of legs.

**~Normal PoV~**

Orion Pax did not have much excitement in his life. He spent his days sorting through data and communications in the DataNet from his cubicle in the Hall of Records. It had not been his choice to be a data clerk, but there was not a bot on Cybertron that had a choice in their lot in life. It was decided for them by the guilds. He sorted data, he did not analyze. Because that was his job. It was Jazz's job, as a cultural investigator, to analyze. Which was why he was meeting with his old friend now.

"I found those files you requested," Orion told the mech as they exited Maccadam's Old Oil House.

"Thanks, OP," Jazz said. "Now I just have to analyze it and we'll have that troublesome mech in no time."

"Jazz, have you ever wondered about what is beyond Cybertron?" Orion asked his friend as they began walking down the street.

Jazz laughed, unknowingly catching the attention of a small alien. "Orion, a Cybertronian hasn't been off Cybertron in over a millennia," he said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Curious about other worlds, huh?"

"I have found many references to a time when such a thing was not unheard of," Orion said, though he noticed his friend's attention had wandered.

"Orion, do you see what I see?" Jazz asked, staring at the small creature he had caught sight of.

He knew it just appeared there a few klicks before he detected its presence. It may have been small, but he knew when he was being watched. The creature was very small, not quite coming up to several of the mechs' ankles that were walking by, oblivious to the creature's presence. It had brown strands of hair on its head, some cloths covering its body and what appeared to be a visor with a bright green frame over its optics, hiding them from view. It also had something blue on its back.

Orion Pax followed his friend's gaze and spotted the small creature across the street. He barely had enough time to study its appearance before Jazz spoke again.

"Come on," Jazz said, starting forward.

Orion stopped him before he could take more than a step. "What are you doing?" he asked, hesitant to make any kind of move toward the fragile looking creature. _It's so small,_ he thought to himself.

"I'm gonna see if I can talk to it," Jazz explained like it was something he did on a daily basis. "Come on, OP. You are curious, aren't you? Besides, it could get stepped on standing around like that." He pointed out the fact that in watching the two of them, the creature seemed to have forgotten the mechs bustling about.

Orion could not protest that logic. He was curious and he knew he could not talk the silver mech out of it. Not only that, but he was also worried the small creature might get stepped on by the oblivious mechs around it. He had to wonder just what it was, and why it was here. Maybe if they took it to a better suited place, they could find out why it was here and he had other questions he found he wanted to ask it. If it was a sentient being, anyway.

However, as they moved to close the distance so they could subtly pick the creature up, it realized they were moving to intercept it. It then made a mad dash down the street, dodging through the legs of mechs without so much as brushing them.

"Hey!" Jazz protested this turn of events and took off after the small creature.

Orion quickly followed after, worried the creature would only land itself in trouble. They followed quickly, finding it difficult to keep up in the mass of bodies. Orion was sure that if it were not for Jazz, he would have lost the creature by now. They followed it as it dashed down an alley way next to a pet shop filled with Cybercats and Glitchhounds. That was when he realized that his fear of the creature getting into trouble was proved founded.

When they turned the corner after it, they were not pleased with what they found. The poor creature had come across what appeared to be a hostile stray Glitchhound. The smaller of the two creatures looked quite calm at first glance, but Orion thought it only looked it with the visor covering its eyes. It was frowning and if he looked close enough he could tell it was shaking as it took a cautious step away from the growling Glitchhound. It said something in a language Orion had never heard before, holding its small hands up as if they would protect it from the much larger being.

"Shoo, shoo," Jazz said, waving his hands in demand as he moved ever closer to the Glitchhound.

As Jazz worked the Glitchhound away from it, Orion cautiously moved toward the small creature they had been following. He moved slowly, not wanting to startle the already frightened whatever-it-was. Once he was close, almost just behind the tiny creature, he knelt down and extended a finger to the small creature. He held it next to it until it took notice of it and turned to looked at him. He could not see its optics, but he could tell it was wary nonetheless.

"It is alright, I will not hurt you," Orion said in what he hoped was a reassuring enough tone. He rotated his hand, holding it out palm up as an invitation for the small one to climb on.

**~Mina's PoV~**

I looked up at the large red, blue and silver mech warily as he held his hand out in obvious invitation. I then turned my attention to the creature that was comparatively small compared to both mechs who had apparently followed me and the silver mech that was trying to shoo it away. Eventually the animal, or the equivalent of, fled and the silver mech turned to look at me.

The larger mech that had his hand next to me said something and I turned my attention back to him. I looked into his eyes, which shone blue and contained a kindness I rarely saw in people back home, much less on an alien planet. He spoke again, in that alien language I was not familiar with, and his tone sounded almost comforting. It was definitely reassuring that he was giving me a choice in whether I climbed into his hand or not.

"Well, it is not like it could harm anything," I muttered to myself. "I mean, the worst that could happen is that he decided to squish me." I looked at the mech. "But you do not seem to want to do that."

With that decided, leaving the two no doubt confused as to what I was saying, I hesitantly and cautiously climbed slowly into the mech's hand. Once I was settled, he stood up straight, bringing the hand with me in it close to his chest as I grabbed onto his thumb. I peered over the edge of his hand once he was standing fully straight. It was a long, long way down and I gulped, moving back and closer to the mech's chest. His fingers curled around me in an almost protective manor as the silver mech said something. The one holding me responded and they began walking, the mech holding me placing his other hand lightly over me. Whether it was to be sure I was not about to fall off his hand or keep me out of sight was anybody's guess.

As the mech carried me, I remained sitting. I was feeling the pain in my side from my hard running and my shoulders were also killing me from carrying the weight of my heavy backpack. I should not have taken extra things to school/work with me. I yawned and rubbed at my eyes underneath my visor, realizing how tired I really was. As soon as the excitement calmed down a little, I was going to take a nice nap.

It was some time before we entered a building, stepping off the busy street outside. I was not released from the mech's hold, however, for what felt like at least five more minutes. We entered what I assumed would be the equivalent of an apartment and he lifted the hand he held over me, allowing me to see our surroundings. The first thing I noticed was that they were watching me, possibly to try to gauge what I thought of this development in my little excursion.

_Or is it a big excursion?_ I wondered as I peered around at the giant sized apartment.

The mech moved forward, I assumed when he realized I was not going to say anything quite yet. He moved to what appeared to be a desk and held the hand he held me on just above the surface. I cautiously crawled off his hand, careful not to pull a clumsy moment and fall onto my face or butt. I turned to look at the two mechs as the one that had carried me here sat in the chair in front of the desk and leaned forward so our eyes were on the same level. The silver one simply leaned against the side of the chair his friend sat in. I took another look around before I spoke, wanting to try to confirm my suspicions.

"So," I said. "This is your home?" I asked, tilting my head at the mechs.

They both just stared at me for a moment before the red/blue/silver one said something, clearly directed at me.

It was my turn to just stared at them. The silver one then said something to the larger mech that was possibly something like "I don't think she understands you". The larger mech said something back before turning back to me as I tilted my head. He said something, but I still just stared in confusion from behind my visor.

"What?" I asked, getting slightly frustrated with this language barrier already. Of course, it was ridiculous to think that beings on another planet would speak English, huh? Too bad I did not have one of those universal translators you sometimes see in sci-fi films.

He said something again and this time I caught something slightly familiar.

"Orepon?" I asked, tilting my head.

He shook his head and repeated it while gesturing to himself. This time he took what I now assumed to be his name really slowly.

"Ori…Pan?" I tried again, but he only repeated himself. Listening very closely, I hoped my next guess was the correct pronunciation. "Orion Pax?"

He finally nodded, saying something almost cheerfully. My face brightened as I realized we were doing introductions here.

"So you are Orion Pax," I said, finding a small half-smile on my face. Orion, like the constellation. I did not know anything by Pax though. I looked to the silver mech. "And who are you?"

I doubt he really understood me, but he probably deduced what I was asking from his friend's action that had led to this point. He pronounced his name in enunciated syllables as he pointed a digit at himself.

"Ja-azz," I repeated softly to myself. I said a little louder, looking at the mech, "Jazz?"

He grinned, though Orion looked almost sad I understood his friend's name faster. It was not his fault his was more complicated though. Orion said something and from the current topic, I knew he was probably asking for my name. I gestured to myself as I tried to articulate my name as well as they had theirs.

"I am Mina," I said.

Orion tried to repeat my name, but failed.

I shook my head. "Mean na." I pronounced each syllable as if they were their own word.

"Mean nah," Orion tried.

"Mina," I repeated.

"Minah," Orion said now.

I grinned, nodding. "Good enough at least," I said.

Jazz extended a digit and said something I was sure was along the lines of "Nice to meet you Minah". I figured I was going to have to get used to the slight mispronunciation of my name. I smiled and grabbed hold of the offered finger, glad there was at least common ground when it came to body language.

When the two mechs started conversing, possibly trying to come with a solution to the language barrier, I decided now was as good of a time as any to relieve my shoulders of my backpack. I sighed in relief when I set the heavy thing down on the surface I was standing on. I could just see the slight concern in Orion's eyes, or would they be called optics, in the corner of my eye as I rubbed at my sore right shoulder with my left hand. Once I was sure my arms were not going to fall off, I stretched them in front of me as I yawned.

The mechs must have realized I was tired, because Jazz said something to his larger friend, who then disappeared from the room for a few moments. Orion returned a couple minutes later and placed something made of cloth next to me. I looked at him in question and he only smiled encouragingly. Upon inspection, the cloth was soft and felt like it would be warm to sleep under. I smiled appreciatively up at the mech and then wrapped it around myself as I laid down right there and then, using my backpack as a pillow. I was unconcerned that it was not the best sleeping arrangement. I certainly slept with worse before. Besides, it was not like it was everyday an alien showed up in these mechs' lives.

That still floored me. Here, I was the alien.

I shivered a little and curled into a tight ball, hoping that aliens were not treated here as the movies always said they were treated back home.

_Journal Entry #4: Feeling Small…_

_I could not help but wonder at how big everything was here. And then I wondered at the fact that to the mechs that had found me, all of this was normal-sized and I was just tiny._

_Everything was so huge to me! And I thought I felt small and insignificant back home. This gives a whole new meaning. I was so small compared to everything. I could not affect anything here if I tried probably. _

_The last thing I was aware of as I drifted off to sleep was the pronounced feeling of being small and helpless. It was not a feeling I liked._

_~Mina Castina_


	3. Coming to Terms

**A/N: **For any of you who read A World Apart you already know this, but I am declaring war on Satan. He has messed with those I care about and myself enough. I am fed up with his attacks. He better be scared, because if he thinks he'll make me doubt God by throwing enough issues my way, he is dead wrong. I got my snake stomping boots(aka the shoes of Peace), my sword called The Word(aka the sword of the Spirit), the belt of Truth and the helmet of Salvation, the shield of Faith and the breastplate of Righteousness. And also got my prayer warrior friends to help me out in this fight. And when you couple Believers with Transfans(Transfans who are Believers) you get an even bigger force to reckon with cause we have our determination and sense of right and wrong along with God! Satan doesn't stand a chance, so I hope he is trembling.

**Scripture of the Update: **So far I have done Proverbs 1:7 in AWA. This is part of my war against Satan. He shall not win! The scripture may or may not fit the chapter.

"_My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, 'Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit; we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse' – My son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path; for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood." ~Proverbs 1:10-16 The Gideons International_

I just realized after reading this scripture, that A) those who it is talking about here reminds me of Decepticons and B) the Bible refers to Hell as the Pit at points. I used a different Bible than I did in AWA, because I am at work and forgot mine, so I used the little orange one we have here. Thankfully it had Proverbs. :D

**Author's Replies:**

**Rose Jennison: **Indeed. :) The others may have squished her. :o

**Transformers' BABY: **Thanks!

**Mikaela the Cat: **I would "freak" on the inside. You'll just have to find out. ;) You never notice, until you have to teach an alien. XD

**Sci-Fifan95: **Indeed. O.O That would've been bad. Glad you liked it. :)

**Moony: **I am glad you liked it so much. :)

**Devil-O-Angel: **That is…classified! Lol. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Lemme guess. I Lost A World! right? I forget the name of the author already, but I loved that story! I like the sequel too. She is an amazing author. I've had this idea for several years, but never had the guts to write it until I saw that it could indeed be written well and liked. Plus, the idea never left me alone for like a couple years now so I decided to write it and make my muse happy. :)

**Noella50881: **Indeed. :( Update here! :)

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you've enjoyed it so far!

And now! Enough of my prattle! Time for the chapter! And then to stomp on the devil some…:D

**Chapter 3: Coming to Terms**

_Journal Entry #5: Realization…_

_When I woke up from my nap, or was it just sleep? I have no way to really know how long it has been. My cell phone would have been good to determine that, but the battery was dead on it. And I discovered this morning, or whatever time of day it was, that my laptop was no longer displaying the time or date. Whatever brought me here confused it in that account, I suppose. That is what I get for having a clock that detects time zones automatically I guess._

_Anyway, when I first woke up, I felt the beginnings of panic when I realized I was not safe and sound in my bed at home. Well, as safe as one ever is when you live in the hood. Then I stopped myself and thought for a moment before remembering what had happened. If I was a cursing person, I may have let slip a few expletives at that moment._

_I found that Orion and Jazz, or one of them at least, had somehow found some sort of food for me. How they knew I ate-do they eat?-was beyond me. Did they have alien visitors in the past? Or perhaps they have myths of other worlds just like we do on Earth. However they knew, they did not have very good taste in what to find me. It had a bitter sweet taste to it that made me cringe, but it was food, so I ate it. And I was thankful that they would feed me. There was also a small container of water, which I drank gratefully to wash down the food._

_Even as I discovered that though, I came to an unsettling realization._

_I was light-years away from home. Maybe to never return._

_Right then, I missed my cat._

_~Mina Castina_

I sighed, staring at the words I had typed into my laptop. I wished I had thought to carry that extra notebook I had. I definitely could not sit around on my laptop all day. I had no idea if there was a way to charge the battery on this thing here. I mean, maybe at some point I could figure something out, but that was probably a long way away. So for now, I just typed journal entries, which took about five to ten minutes, a deduction I made using what I knew of the life span of a charge on this battery, to do and then I shut down my laptop.

As I closed my laptop, I heard the sound of speech and looked up to find Orion just mere feet from the desk. Jazz had disappeared sometime during my sleep. I had no idea what Orion had just said, so I just gave a small wave. He looked a little confused by the motion, but experimentally mirrored it. I could not help but smile a little. It was almost like a little child first learning what the gesture meant. Except there was no clear way to explain to Orion that it was a form of greeting, and sometimes farewell.

I sighed, realizing again that communication with these guys was going to be difficult.

Orion said something again, moving closer and bending slightly so we were at eye-to-optic level. I really wished I knew what he was saying. Was he asking me something? Was he telling me I need to leave the planet? Or perhaps he was cursing me out in his odd language of whirrs and clicks and other mechanical sounds. But somehow I got the impression he was not cursing me out. So far, I had not been given any reason to believe the mech did not like me. Other than the fact that we just met. I certainly did not dislike him at this point. I did not like him either though. The verdict was still up when it came to that.

Orion said something again and I tilted my head as I listened hard to try to pick out anything that may help me know what he was saying. Unfortunately, I could not make out a single word. Anything I could make out was a word I was completely unfamiliar with.

"I do not know what you are saying," I said with a sigh in my voice. Then something occurred to me. Maybe I could learn where exactly I was the same way we learned each other's names.

I stood up and gestured to the city outside the window, if they called them cities here. I then made a shrugging motion. "Where am I?" I asked, hoping he would understand what I was asking.

It took a few times before Orion seemed to take in the fact I had no idea where I was and his optics seemed to widen. He then said something in what I recognized as a shocked tone. I suppose it would have been a shock to any Earthling to discover an alien did not know where they were as well. After all, according to all the movies, every being in the universe knew of Earth, as isolated and oblivious as the planet is. Personally though, I would not be surprised to find that Orion had never heard of Earth before. I mean, Earth _is_ pretty isolated from the rest of the galaxy. No point in delusions that Earth was famous, it is a rather conceited view in my opinion.

Orion gestured to the ground beneath his feet, clearly referring to the planet itself, and said a three syllable word the same way he had said his name when I had finally understood.

_Hmm, Cyb-ber-tron, huh? So without breaking it down, Cybertron, I think, _I thought to myself and then repeated the word as I understood it to Orion, who then nodded with a smile on his face.

Then he gestured to the city outside. I turned to look at the amazing view, which was stunningly beautiful. He said something that sounded like "Icon". I thought that was a strange name and looked up at the mech, who was now standing up straight.

"Icon?" I asked, being reminded of the things you click on computer screens to pull up documents and internet pages.

He shook his head and repeated the word that could only be the name of the city we were in. Again, if they called them cities.

"Oh! Iacon! That makes more sense…kind of," I said, not really sure how much sense it would make to other people of Earth. It made perfect sense to me though. It made more sense than Icon anyway. Amazing what one letter can do.

I turned back to the window and looked out at Iacon, watching as mechs walked by, on their way to jobs or whatever. I wondered if they had any kind of entertainment or recreational activities. I could not believe they did not. Everyone had something they do in their spare time and that was something I was sure was universal. Off in the very, very far distance I saw something that might have been similar to an amusement park. I pointed it out to Orion and he said something about it, presumably what it was, but I could not understand him. Instead I studied his expression as he looked out at the place. For a moment, I thought there was a wistful look in his optics, but it was quickly gone and he said something before dropping some food onto the desk I was on and then leaving.

_That was an odd reaction,_ I thought to myself. I looked back to the place that reminded me of an amusement park. _Perhaps it is one and only certain bots can go and he has never been to it._

The thought disturbed me. Could some bots possibly be barred through some sort of barrier not to be able to go? Was it a monetary or social problem? How could they possibly justify keeping people out simply because of their social status? I knew that the rich and the poor did not get along back home, and there were some professions that were looked down on by other professions-my own writing and art was looked down on by some people-but at the same time, no one was ever barred from anywhere based solely on social status. Even I had been to an amusement park before, as much of an outcast I was. I found it unfair that Orion had never been to this amusement park off in the distance.

"Oh how I wish I understood what was going on here," I sighed, placing an arm across my torso, resting my other elbow on my hand and my head in that hand. "It would be nice to be able to communicate with Orion beyond random gestures and very articulated words that may not hold the same meaning."

I sighed, realizing that no amount of understanding of where I was now would get me home. But in the end, was I not always told that home was where the heart was? So, then the question is, where is my heart? Was it back on Earth? Or out here, on another world? I had never felt like I belonged back on Earth. And I had always been curious as to what filled the rest of the universe. Not that I had believed I would ever get the chance to find out. And now where was I? An alien planet, that is where.

And I was not sure what I thought about my situation. How should one feel about this kind of thing?

I decided not to worry too much about it and walked over to my bag, pulling out my sketchbook, a pencil, an eraser and a pen. I also pulled my iPod out of my pocket before settling down on my stomach for a nice and relaxing drawing session. As I flipped to a blank page, I also browsed my music, looking for a song to listen to. I eventually settled on These Things Take Time by Sanctus Real.

_I want to know why pain makes me stronger_

_I want to know why good men die_

_Why am I so afraid of the dark_

_But I stray from the light_

_I want to know why you gave me eyes_

_When faith is how I see_

_And tell me is it easier to doubt_

_Or harder to believe_

_Oh there's so many questions stirring in me_

I stuck my tongue out as I worked on my drawing, trying to be as detailed as I could in it.

_And I'm wondering why_

_Sometimes the truth ain't easy to find_

_I want to know all the answers_

_But I'm learning that these things take time_

_Yes, these things take time_

It was about then that my iPod just suddenly stopped playing. I paused in the middle of adding detail to the jacket my brother wore all the time. Hey, I thought I should draw my family so that I would not forget what they looked like. I picked up the music device that sat next to my work and looked at it. The screen had gone black, which usually meant it was off. I unlocked the controls and tried to turn it back on, but nothing happened. I made a frustrated noise and slammed the offending piece of technology down enough to make a clack, but not enough to break it.

_The battery must be dead,_ I thought to myself as I took the headphones out of my ears.

This turn of events left me in absolute silence, save the occasional chatter I heard from outside.

_This is the worst day before my birthday I have ever had, _I thought to myself. _Wait…it is my birthday tomorrow…_

I sighed, looking at the drawing I was drawing and then started working on it again. I was not going to be going to Winter Jam and I was not going to see my family on my birthday. They must be so worried. I could feel the tears build up in my eyes and I did not bother to fight them. No one was here, so no one would see me cry. I hated when others saw me cry, so it worked out.

I missed my family, even as dysfunctional as it was.

**~Normal PoV~**

Orion Pax did not know why the small organic, as he had discovered that was what it was from the archives, was on Cybertron. He was not even sure that Minah knew why she-for he was sure she was female-was here either. He also did not know what he was going to do about it. What could he do? Turn her over to the Council? What would they do to her if he did? He knew Jazz was a little suspicious of her. He could not say he entirely blamed him. There were reports in the archives of an alien invasion that had happened in time past, well before Orion had ever emerged from the Well of AllSparks.

But even so, Orion had a hard time believing the small organic posed a threat. Despite the mystery behind her appearance, he did not see any reason to be suspicious of her. Perhaps she was just lost. It would make sense seeing as how she had not known where she was until he had told her. And even then she may never have heard of Cybertron before, which would explain why she had not known that was where she was now.

Orion sighed, finding it hard to focus on his work with the thoughts of the small organic sitting on his desk in his apartment. He wondered if she did something similar back on her own planet. What was life like for the organic?

"Orion Pax," the voice of the head archivist had him looking up from his monitor.

"Alpha Trion?" Orion asked in surprise.

Alpha Trion gave his underling a calculating expression. "You are distracted," he observed.

"I am sorry, sir," Orion said. "I will focus." He went to return to his work, but the hand on his shoulder had him looking up again.

"Orion," Alpha Trion said. "You are not one to be distracted easily and you usually enjoy your work, a trait uncommon in these times. Is there something going on?"

Orion paused. He was not sure if he could trust his superior with the existence of the organic. But at the same time, he could not lie to Alpha Trion. He was his friend as much as his mentor.

"There is something," Orion said. "But I doubt you will believe it."

"Perhaps," Alpha Trion said. "Would you want to talk about it?" He offered, not liking to see his best student so worried about something.

"Perhaps another time, sir," Orion said. "Just not yet."

"Oh?" Alpha Trion frowned at the mech. It was not like Orion Pax to hide anything from him.

"Please," Orion said. "I will tell you. Just not yet. It is…complicated."

"Of course," Alpha Trion said. "I will respect your wishes, of course. It is not my job to pry into your life. I was merely asking as a friend."

Orion nodded. "Perhaps you could come over and find out," he said. "I do not wish to keep it from you, and your advice would be welcomed, but I do not think this mega cycle is the correct one to reveal it."

"How about next mega cycle, then?" Alpha Trion asked, intrigued as to what was taking Orion Pax's attention off his duties.

Orion thought about that a moment. How would the small organic react to the presence of a third mech? She had not been so thrilled to meet Jazz and himself at first. The last thing he wanted to do was cause the organic unnecessary stress. But something told him that his mentor would not do anything to harm the small being.

Orion nodded. "Very well," he said.

With that, Alpha Trion left Orion to his work. Sighing, the mech returned to listening to and sorting the communications going across the DataNet. It felt like forever before it was time to leave and he could return to his apartment and the small organic inside. He was unsure what he would find and was actually concerned that some mech had broken into his apartment and found the organic where she sat on his desk. As far as he knew she had yet to venture from there since he had set her down there. It was just as well though, at least he knew he wouldn't step on her.

When Orion reached his apartment, he was relieved to find that Mina was right where she was when he had left. Meaning that she was on the desk. She had moved and was sitting just in front of the window, visor uncharacteristically on the top of her head instead of over her optics. In her reflection he saw that her eyes were a dark shade of brown and they held sadness. His spark went out to her, knowing this whole thing had to be hard on her.

His attention drifted from the contemplative organic to a small pad of paper he had seen her take out of her bag. It was opened to a page and on the page was a colored picture of a group of people of her species, gathered in a pose. A person who looked remarkably like Mina, visor and all, stood back-to-back with what appeared to be a male, each with their arms crossed across their chest. Mina had a grin on her face while the male had a smirk. Behind the two were three other females and a second male, all looking older than the two standing back-to-back. One of the older females and the older male were giving what appeared to be salutes, while the male had an arm wrapped around the saluting female. The other two females were simply standing and smiling in the background. He could see traits shared between all the people in the drawing, though they all had their own identity.

"Is this your family unit?" he found himself asking even though he knew Mina could not understand him.

He almost regretted announcing himself when the organic gave a start and pulled her visor back over her optics. But what was done was done. There was no use regretting it. The organic female turned to him and upon spotting her drawing pad resting on his finger as he was slightly hunched over to examine it, she stood to her feet and walked over. He offered the item to her and she took it into her tiny hands. She turned the pad so that it was not upside down to her and inspected the picture he had been inspecting. Though he thought she wasn't aware of it, he saw her bottom lip tremble.

"You must miss them," he said softly. He extended a finger and wiped away some wetness that had begun to streak down the organic's cheek.

_Journal Entry #6: Tears and Trust…_

_I had not wanted to cry in front of Orion. I did not want to cause him more trouble than I probably already was. I did not want him to worry about me beyond his obvious concern about whether I ate or not._

_But when I found he had seen the drawing I had worked on almost the entire time he had been away, doing whatever it was the mech did for a living, I could not help it. I had hoped by drawing my family and I together, cheerful, it may have made the separation easier to bear. _

_Instead, it was the opposite. Orion's discovery of the picture and my subsequent viewing of it led me back to tears for the second time today. It had shocked me when Orion had reached out and gently brushed the streams of wetness from my cheek with a finger, but it made me realize just how much of an idiot I was for thinking he would ever harm me on purpose. _

_Sure, I just met him. But his optics shone with such kindness and gentleness there was no way he was a bad guy. Besides that, he had taken me in when he did not have to. He could have squished me, or left me to fend for myself, especially after I had run away from him and Jazz._

_I also realized it was pointless to hide my conflicting emotions behind my visor with him at this point. So I removed my visor so that I could wipe the tears away from my eyes before looking up at him._

_Somehow his expression became even softer as he scooped me into his hands and held me against his chest, giving off a strange purring sound. Whatever the sound was, it was calming and comforting._

_Maybe it would not hurt to allow myself to trust this mech._

_~Mina Castina_


	4. A Birthday Away From Home

**A/N: **Yay! Update! It's a little longer than the last two chapters, but since things haven't really picked up yet, it's a little difficult to make it as long as my updates for my other stories. I am trying though! I would've had it done earlier, but I had a birthday party to go to. One year old kids are so much fun! :D I love kids… :)

**Scripture of the Update: **I know some people don't get why I do this, but I will do it anyway. Let's just say it's a faith thing. :D

"_Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught." ~Proverbs 3:25-26 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Mikaela the Cat: **Indeed. Lol. Edmonton? Chapters? Never heard of 'em, but good luck! They are awesome books. :D Thanks for the prayers and AMEN! :D We shall not go down without a fight. :)

**Sci-Fifan95: **Indeed. It is a hard thing to not be able to talk to someone. :( And again, thank you for praying. :)

**Devil-O-Angel: **Thank you! :D Indeed. :)

**KayleeChiara: **Hehe, yup those are all things to be considered. Glad you liked it. :)

**Transformers' BABY: **^.^ Glad you liked it.

**Vivian Hale: **Ah, that's right. Hey! I recognize that one too. They take longer to update than I do, but the story is really good. Go for it Viv. ;D And listen to Jazz about finishing…whatever you're supposed to finish. Lol. As a seemingly random note, every time I see the word "proxy" I think about Proxy from Faecat's Science and Fiction. XD

**crystal winged prime: **I like romance as much as the next person. However, if I have romance in this story, it will not be between OP and Mina. I am not about to ignore the existence of Elita because you "hate" her. I do not understand how you could hate her, as she is a good character and perfect for OP. Unless you hate her because of that, which would kinda put you in the same category as those snubby popular girls from high school. I hope that is not the case. As for her design, if I have her changed, which is a big if at this point, I will decide her design not be demanded by some random person to design her a specific way. Thanks for the suggestion, but next time you might reframe from being so demanding sounding. :|

ANYWAY! For those of you who are at least curious enough to stick around, here is the next update!

**Chapter 4: A Birthday Away from Home**

_Journal Entry #7: Come to Terms…_

_It was like by crying and having Orion comfort me in his own alien way that was almost like a hug, it helped me come to terms with my predicament._

_Sure I was light-years away from home. Sure I was spending my birthday alone. Well, I found I was not truly alone. Even though he would spend much of the day away, I did have Orion to hang with after he got home. Even if we could not easily communicate and even if he did not realize it was my twentieth birthday._

_Do not get me wrong. I still missed my family._

_But the separation had somehow become more bearable._

_I was still left with one question though…_

_How does one entertain yourself in a situation like this?_

_~Mina Castina_

I bit my lip and pondered that question as I tilted my head. I was absently twirling my pen in my hand as I did so, a habit I had seemed to pick up this morning in my anxiety to do more than just sit around.

"Minah."

I looked up from my typing to look at Orion. He was standing near the door, so I gathered that he was leaving. When he stopped talking, I gave a wave before returning to my computer to turn it off. It was another moment before I heard the door open and close. I looked up again and lifted my visor, frowning. I did not even look when I closed my laptop after it completed its shutdown cycle. Then I looked around at the apartment without the filter of my visor or the bleariness from tears for the first time.

"Hmm, how am I going to spend this day?" I wondered. "I am not going to spend my entire birthday on a desk."

I frowned around at my perch. My stuff mostly sat against the wall, save my laptop when it was in use. Whatever I was using to occupy my time would be with me closer to the edge away from the wall. Orion had gotten me more cloths, which I had bundled up in a sort of blanket nest, like how I had slept at some point during my high school years. It was not the same as a bed, but it was a lot comfier than sleeping on the desk with nothing. A good part of the desk contained some large pads that Orion worked with when we were not trying to hold some form of conversation. Well that was how it had went yesterday anyway, after I calmed down from my breakdown. He had worked on the pads and I had sat not far from him, writing in my notebook that had originally been for my communications class, not that I had many notes in it anyway.

But now that I was alone, again, I did not want to remain on this desk indefinitely. My curious side was starting to get the best of me again. If it were not for the fact that I had not had a choice in this, I would be in my own explorer's heaven. I had also been interested in life on other planets. I just had expected to be able to say goodbye to my family before going off to see one if the opportunity ever had arrived.

"But how am I going to get down?" I wondered, inspecting the front of the desk by standing at the edge and looking down.

I immediately regretted the action and backed up, eyes wide and heart beating just a tad faster. I had not realized just how tall this thing was.

_Of course, it has got to be tall with how tall Orion is,_ I thought to myself. _Still, if my old hamster could do this, so can I._

I took a deep breath and began edging myself carefully over the edge of the desk. I hung onto the edge tightly as my feet tried to find purchase. As soon as I was sure I would have a few seconds to move my hands, I released the edge before grabbing hold of the best grip I could see. The climb down wasn't graceful or fast by any means, but after what felt like half an hour-at least-I finally landed my feet on good ol' solid ground. I took a moment to relish the fact I no longer had to worry about losing my grip and falling to a splatty demise. I flinched when it crossed my mind that Orion would've returned to find a splat on his floor and no human. I could tell he cared enough that it would upset him-slightly anyway.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and then looked around, placing my visor back over my eyes. Now I had to decide where I would explore first. I caught sight of a hole in the wall and despite the logical side of me telling me I had the entire apartment to explore, I was inevitably drawn to the hole. It was large compared to myself, but appeared to be about the size that a mouse would chew when I compared it to the size of everything else I had seen so far. It also looked like it had been chewed there, leading me to believe that they had something similar to mice on Cybertron.

I looked back at the apartment for a moment, debating in my mind where to explore first. Part of me longed to go into the hole and seek adventure I wouldn't find too much of inside. But yet, I was not yet comfortable enough to venture outside, so I ended up deciding on staying indoors where at least I knew I wouldn't get attacked by Cybertronian mice. Not that I thought mice were mean, but I didn't know what kind of temperament the Cybertronian version had. Especially when it came to things my size.

"I feel so small…" I muttered as I walked by the enormous chair that sat in front of the desk. "Hm, maybe I could make this fun…"

I grinned, a small part of me reverting to the antics I pulled as a kid. I climbed back up the desk and grabbed a few of my blankets and threw them to the ground. I grinned when they landed near enough to each other that I could hop from to the other. I grabbed one of the remaining blankets and tied one end around my neck, glad the one of the cloths Orion had found was small enough I could do that without tripping me. I knew using a blanket as a cape was a childish thing, but I was alone and needed to make exploring the apartment fun somehow. I slung the remaining one over my shoulder and looked down briefly before starting the climb back down.

My game called for me being on an adventure and I had to safely traverse my way to the lair of an evil bad guy-I wasn't sure the bad guy's name yet. The evil man held one of my friends hostage and the only way to save them was defeat the evil villain. The biggest catch was that I couldn't touch the ground directly, but with something in between my feet and it I would be safe and wouldn't burn to death. As such, when I reached the ground I dropped the blanket that I wasn't wearing as a cape below me before dropping down onto it. I then moved across the blankets, before realizing it wasn't exactly fun when it was this easy to stay off the ground.

"It was much funner as an eleven year old," I realized. "Oh I miss my childhood innocence."

As I sighed wistfully, I looked around for a new idea and gathered the blankets back up in a pile. There was no way I was gonna get them back on the desk. I was actually a little cold, but I figured I would warm up by moving around, so I dropped my cape blanket into the pile as well. I then went to look around the apartment in a sane manner. Since my idea of using blankets to avoid the floor wasn't as exciting as I had remembered it, I had to find other ways to make my adventure interesting. I did this by climbing up the tallest piece of furniture I could find and looked out over the room.

Climbing proved to be a difficult task. Climbing the sparse furniture in Orion's small apartment was a lot different than climbing trees. It was closer to rock climbing in its difficulty, which I had never been too good at. Mostly because I got so high and began to think I would fall back down. But it was amazing how being in an unknown place motivated me to push myself beyond my normal comfort zone in more than one way. I never got to the top though. About three fourths of the way up I came to a spot where I could safely lounge. Since my arms hurt from all the climbing I had done so far and a check on my height told me I would die if I fell, I settled down for a break.

I sighed, leaning against the object as I slid down to the part underneath my feet until I was sitting. I took a deep breath, removing my visor and wiping my brow. I closed my eyes, intending to just rest for a bit before either looking out over the room, but before I realized it, I fell into a slumber. My adventure would wait till later on in the day.

**~Normal PoV~**

Orion Pax was not sure, but as he observed Minah a couple mega cycles after he and Jazz had found he started to think that she was growing bored with her current schedule. As far as he knew, she had yet to do more than do something on the terminal she owned and write the old fashion way on a pad of paper. She hadn't come up with anymore pictures since the one that he was sure was of her family unit. But the way she twirled her writing utensil had him believing she was getting antsy.

_I wouldn't be surprised if I came home and found her in a new location,_ he absently thought as she stopped typing on her terminal. Despite the fact that she was wearing her visor, he knew she went into thought when she tilted her head while what would be the lower mouth plate on a mech.

"Minah," he finally called to her. When she looked up at him, her twirling ceased and he continued. "I am headed to the Hall of Records now. I will have a visitor when I return." Despite the fact he knew she likely didn't understand a word, he still felt obligated to voice it to her.

She did that odd waving motion with her hand before turning back to her terminal. Orion hesitated a moment, trying to decide what the motion meant. But when it didn't appear that she had wanted him to come over, he left his apartment and headed to the Hall of Records and the job that awaited him.

The cycle went as it usually did. He sorted through the communications going through the Grid. The ones that met the correct criteria, he listened to, annotated, categorized and saved to a different sector of the DataNet. That was the cycle he started hearing some strange transmissions. They weren't too strange, but the fact that it was from Kaon and Slaughter City and he could only call them philosophical. They were fragmented and distorted, but he could make out that a gladiator by the name of Megatronus was starting to speak about being living beings and something about the High Council keeping everybot enslaved with the caste system they had in place.

Orion Pax didn't know if he believed the talk going back and forth between the two cities, but it did catch his attention. He filed and indexed the communications for later reference to think about later. He would keep track of this gladiator and his ideals for a while before he decided what he was going to do with the transmissions.

Other than the unusual transmissions, the cycle was pretty normal. When he left the Hall of Records, Alpha Trion accompanied him. He wondered how Alpha Trion would take that he was harboring an alien in his apartment and how Minah would react to meeting Alpha Trion. She had come to be relaxed around him, but it had taken a bit of time and it may have something to do with the fact that he comforted her when she was upset.

"Do you mind sharing what it is that you find so distracting before we reach it?" Alpha Trion's question brought Orion out of his thoughts.

"Oh, well," he replied. He wasn't sure how to tell his mentor there was an alien in his apartment. "It is…not something one would expect."

"I see," Alpha Trion said, his optics betraying his amusement. "I suspect if it were, you would not need my advice."

Orion rubbed his helm sheepishly. "That is true," he said. After all, he knew how to handle the expected. "But perhaps we shouldn't talk about it on the streets."

"Very well," Alpha Trion said. "You may tell me when we get there then."

Orion nodded in gratitude. He was thankful that his mentor was not one to pry or speak of the things he sought advice on in public if he did not wish to. Of course, Alpha Trion spent most of his time in the Hall of Records, even when the data clerks have all retired for the night. Orion sometimes believed he lived there, but he didn't know for certain.

Once they were in his apartment, Orion felt it safe to tell Alpha Trion after a quick glance through the immediate room showed the organic to not be in there. As he had suspected, she had wandered from his spot on the desk. What he found odd though, was the fact that the clothes he had given her and she had made into a place to sleep were on the floor, rather than on the desk.

"So what is this that you wish my advice on, Orion Pax?" Alpha Trion asked.

"I have…come across something," Orion Pax said. "It…she is not from this world."

"She?" Alpha Trion asked. "Are you meaning that you have found an alien? A being from another planet?"

"Yes," Orion said truthfully. "She is very small, no bigger than a glitch mouse. She does not speak our language, but Jazz and I have been able to communicate our names to her and we have found that her name is Minah. That is about all we know, but I believe she did not come here on purpose."

"What makes you think that?" Alpha Trion asked curiously.

Orion paused, considering what he should tell him. "She…did not know where she is until I told her. It was not easy, but it seems names and names of things are easy enough to communicate," he explained. "It takes a few tries, though."

Alpha Trion nodded. "It seems a fair assessment to make," he concluded. "But how do you think she will react to me?"

Orion paused again. "I am not sure," he said. "She was not too enthused to meet Jazz and I at first. But once she realized we did not intend to hurt her, she seemed to calm down quite a bit."

"Perhaps since she already knows you, she will, at the very least, not run away," Alpha Trion said with amusement.

Orion almost chuckled. "Indeed," he agreed with his mentor.

"Now where is this 'Minah' anyway?" Alpha Trion asked.

"She should be somewhere around here," Orion said, looking around. "She is usually sitting on my desk, but it seems she has wandered away from it."

Alpha Trion chuckled. "Well, you would expect her to explore her surroundings," he said.

**~Mina's PoV~**

When I had woken up from my unplanned nap, I found myself a little disoriented when I realized how high I was. I had almost panicked before remembering that I had climbed up here. My next course of action was to look around the room I was in.

There was an area with a few chairs and a small-for them anyway-table. There was the desk by the window, with the chair in front of it. The piece of furniture I occupied was some kind of shelf and on it sat numerous of those pads that Orion worked with. Also on it was some kind of machine that reminded me of a soda dispenser. I had seen Orion get some kind of glowing blue liquid from it a couple times. I had no idea what it was, but I figured it was safe to assume that these aliens required the substance. That, or they just liked drinking it. Or both.

As I moved on to climb down from the shelf, I reflected that I really needed to stop calling them aliens, seeing as how they were the ones who belonged here. I was the alien and they were the locals. The thought brought back my thought I had had that first day, what would happen to me for the simple fact I was an alien? Would they treat me as a guest? Or would I be treated as they always said aliens were treated in Area 51? Granted, that was all a bunch of conspiracy theories and there was never any real proof. I had always believed there were aliens, but I had not known for sure if they had been on Earth before.

I shivered a little, hoping that these guys were not like humans in the respect that they didn't like things that are different. Orion seemed nice enough and so far I had no reason to believe he would tell anyone about me if he thought they might experiment on me. The thought still made me wary, but I figured there was not much I could do about my situation. If it came down to it, I could always find out where that hole in the wall led to.

I pushed the thoughts out of my mind as I explored the other rooms of the apartment. There was a room that I could more or less recognize as being for sleeping. It contained a large slab of metal that I somehow got the sense of it being similar to a bed. There was what appeared to be a blanket draped over it anyway. Other than that, the room was pretty bare. There was also a room that contained what looked like a giant shower. That was pretty much it, though I took my time to explore each room, getting to know the layout and how long it took me to go through each room and the hallway.

I walked back into the main room with the intention of finding a way to return the blankets to the top of the desk and possibly do some writing. My plans were thwarted, though, when I noticed both Orion Pax and another mech in the room. The mech with him was much taller than him and had red and blue armor. There were bits of metal on his face that reminded me of a long beard and mustache. He had an aura that just screamed that he was very wise.

Orion had been looking around, but had stopped when his eyes fell on me as I stared up at his friend. He said something, which brought the strange mech's attention to me, as he moved forward. He knelt down and offered his hand, saying something as I looked suspiciously at the strange mech. When I turned my attention to Orion, I saw his encouragement and figured he was probably trying to tell me I didn't need to worry. I reluctantly climbed into his offered hand, but still watched the strange mech warily.

I was deposited on the desk, as seemed to be my designated area when talking-or trying to-to my hosts. I turned back to the mechs only to find myself under the gaze of the unknown mech, who was looking at me in interest. I fidgeted, feeling much like I was being held underneath a microscope, even though I wasn't. He said something and I couldn't tell if he was awed or puzzled by something. I could tell that the closeness in which he was examining me-for that's what it felt he was doing-was starting to make me uneasy.

Orion must've seen my uneasiness, because he said something to the mech and he backed up a bit. The mech was intimidatingly tall, but that seemed to be a norm for these guys.

_Journal Entry #8: A Birthday Meeting_

_Well, I may not have gotten the birthday I had wanted, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't interesting. I mean, how was being on an alien world not interesting? I was too busy being curious, in awe and a little excited to really miss home that day._

_So far I had gathered that there weren't a whole lot of differences between humans and this race of beings. It appeared that they slept, worked, washed and consumed…something. It didn't seem that different from humans, specific details aside._

_The strange mech that Orion brought into his apartment had me wary. I somehow got the feeling I could trust him, but my rational mind was still wary. _

_What I knew for sure, after a bunch of arm flailing and poor attempts at communication, was that this mech was named Alpha Trion. I also could figure out that he was Orion's boss at the place he worked. I still wasn't sure what they did though. I'm pretty sure they tried to communicate that, but the odd words and hand motions were not easy to translate._

_Maybe I should've invested more into my charades skills during those parties my family used to drag me to._

_Alpha Trion seemed nice enough, for a being who seemed to take so much interest in me anyway. The three of us talked, or tried to, for a good portion of the remainder of the day. _

_They attempted to tell me about their planet, though they got mostly confused looks and an attempt at conveying that I did not understand._

_In return for their attempts though, I attempted to tell them about my old life. I think I had as much success as they did. Which was very little._

_When Alpha Trion finally left, I was still uneasy about the mech, but I still didn't believe Orion would tell a dangerous mech about my existence._

_Jazz made an appearance after Orion's boss left, bearing some more of that strange tasting food and a cheerful greeting. The silver mech seemed a lot more laid back than the other two and he chatted with Orion for some time. Parts of their conversation seemed serious and I couldn't help feeling that some things weren't so good for them._

_Without understanding them though, I had no way of knowing for sure._

_~Mina Castina_


	5. A Way to Communicate

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait guys! I've been so busy lately with the vacation and the move and the job hunt. Please pray for me, I really need a job and am having difficulty.

Anyways, I know I said in my update of A World Apart that this story and It's a Prime Adventure would be trading places, but as it turns out, I got this update done first. I've been working on it while Sci works on our co-op chapter for IAPA, you see, so that's how come I was able to keep the order the same. I will tell you that there will be at least one time the order is different in the future though. I cannot tell you why, as that would be a bit of a spoiler and I don't want to spoil it for you. ^.^

As another note, I have a poll up on my profile now for this story. I have been on the fence for a while now about something. My initial intention with this story was that Mina would remain human and _somehow_ gain the lifespan of a Cybertronian. It would be a double first for me if I did that, as this is my first writing a character who's never heard of the Bots before as my main character and it would also be my first time not having the main character turn Cybertronian. My muse has been nagging me to change her eventually, though and I have been…requested to do so by a reader, though I will not go through with all of that person's suggestion. If she changes, she will _not_ be paired with OP, just saying. He has Elita, and Ironhide has Chromia. They are off-limits for Mina.

Anyways, the poll is whether _you _guys think I should change her or not. And, if I do, who _you _think I should pair her with, if anybot. If I change her, I will decide her exact design when it happens. Choices for pairings are as follows:

Ratchet-my preference, as you all know, but I thought I'd give you guys a chance to choose

Wheeljack-he is in my top five favorite bots

Jazz-one of my favs who is not already paired

Sunstreaker-please don't torture me, I'm just trying to be open-minded

Sideswipe-he's not as bad as Sunstreaker

Any other suggestion, which you will have to make me aware of-most preferably a mech

No bot

And, of course the option of keeping her human.

If you guys don't give me input, my muse will inevitably win, which would be fine with me, but I'm trying for some input here.

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil." ~Proverbs 4:26-27 New King James version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Mikaela the Cat: **Hehe. I'm 20 and still do things like that from time to time. Ah, I see. We had a place called Book World back in Chillicothe. I don't know about here yet as I have yet to venture downtown, where I'll be headed tomorrow. Glad you liked the chapter! :)

**RintinDestiny: **Stereotypical? Have I ever been that? ;P Lol. That'd just be boring! Glad you like it so far! :)

**Sci-Fifan95:** Indeed. Lol. She'd hurt herself if she met Omega Supreme. Lol. Glad you liked it, bro. :)

**Vivian Hale: **It's a really long fic…lol. Jazz pull a Prowl? Probably just cuz he wants ya ta pass yer classes. As we all do. :) Glad you liked it. And capes are fun! Sometimes I'm tempted to try and use a blanket like a parachute, like Baby Mario in Yoshi's Island when he is Super Baby Mario. I've never actually done so, as it may not work and I am fond of living. XD

**KayleeChiara: **I will work on that. This one is actually a little over six thousand words. :D I'm glad you like it. :)

**Luna Uchiha666: **Thanks! I am glad you like it. :)

**crystal bot: **Well, the misspelled 'please' is better, but as I said, I am not going to ignore Elita's existence, as you will see in this chapter. I will not now, or ever, write an OP/OC fanfic. OP has Elita, that's that. I do not understand your hate for her. *frowns and tilts her head in perplexity* Anyways, I always keep cannon pairings, which are OP/Elita and Ironhide/Chromia. If you want an OP/OC fanfic, feel free to read Through a Cybercat's Optics-it is perhaps the single best OP/OC fanfic out there and the only one I could ever bare to read. Or, write one yourself.

**TransFanFreak101: **Glad you liked it!

Anyways, finally to the chapter! Enjoy!

**Chapter 5: A Way to Communicate**

_Journal Entry #33: Almost a Month?_

_It has been fourteen solar cycles since I met Alpha Trion. I am calling them solar cycles, because I was certain by now that if I said days I would be wrong. Day, as I know the word, means twenty-four hours. And I am now one hundred percent sure there are more hours in a solar cycle here than back on Earth. So using Earth time measurements doesn't make much sense. So do I know if I've been here a month or more? Well, I've been writing twice each cycle, and had transferred all my journal entries to my notebook when I realized the laptop battery was running low. And I had written twenty eight entries since the cycle of Alpha Trion's visit. Add the eight I had written before, counting the cycle of, and taking into account the first four were the same day/cycle then that means I've been here seventeen solar cycles._

_Seventeen solar cycles that are longer than a day on Earth. That means it's been almost a month, or has been a month. I couldn't really know for certain, since my internal sense of time was not the best to begin with and has been completely thrown off by this new time. I had no idea what to rename any of my sense of time beyond the whole solar cycle thing._

_Anyway. During this past…time period…whatever, during this past time period I have managed to learned a few things from listening to Orion and Jazz talk whenever the silver mech came for a visit. I hear Orion mention somebot named Megatronus a lot during their conversations. I wasn't sure what, but something about this mech troubled Orion and Jazz, though it was harder to tell with Jazz. I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing though._

_I also learned that beyond Alpha Trion and these two, no one else knew about me. I was able to figure that out by paying close attention to their body language. I had walked over to them while they were talking one cycle and had discovered they were talking about me. Jazz had mentioned something called the High Council before Orion shook his head and lifted me. He seemed concerned and his hold had seemed protective. Whatever he said had Jazz agreeing with him._

_I really wanted to figure out how to communicate with these guys._

_~Mina Castina_

I yawned and stretched, cracking my knuckles and attracting the attention of Orion, who was currently sitting at the desk. He always gave me an odd look whenever I cracked something and I always just grinned at him. That's just what I did now, grin at him. And then I closed my notebook-turned-journal and set it and my pen down with my other stuff before walking over to where Orion was working. I peered at the pad-thing that he was currently working on and tried to make sense of what he was doing.

He talked to me as he worked, so I supposed he was telling me what he was doing, but I couldn't understand a word of it. Nor could I understand the writing on the pad. After a while I sighed and shrugged, signaling to Orion that I had understood absolutely nothing. It seemed shrugging was the universal sign of not knowing or having no clue. I sat down and leaned against the arm he had laying on the desk. I heard him sigh as well before he continued his work in silence. This seemed to be our morning routine since I started waking up earlier than I had been. Or I assumed I was waking up earlier anyway, since he wasn't leaving before or just after I finished writing in my journal.

Usually I would sit against his arm and nap a little for a seemingly set amount of time before Orion would leave to do whatever he does during the cycles. So when there was a knock at his door, successfully startling my almost sleep self, and he got up to answer it, it was something new. We didn't usually get visitors in the mornings, so it was confusing.

**~Normal PoV~**

Orion sighed as his attempts at explaining the situation to Mina failed once again. He didn't really expect any different, but he supposed he had just fallen into the habit. Just like she had fallen into the habit of resting against his servo after giving up on understanding him. She looked so forlorn when she did so that he would sigh as well. They both wanted to be able to communicate, that was for sure.

_Jazz did say he'd try to find someone who could help,_ he thought to himself.

Orion was surprised when there was a knock on the door and he hesitated just long enough to make sure Mina wasn't freaked out. She seemed perfectly fine, though she looked up at him with some confusion and curiosity in her organic optics. He was curious as well, so he got up to find out who was visiting. When he opened the door, he was relieved to see that it was only Jazz.

"Hey OP," he said.

"Hello Jazz," Orion greeted, allowing the silver mech entrance.

The silver mech walked in and grinned when he saw the organic sitting on the desk, who had put her visor on and then taken it off when she realized it was Jazz. "And hello to you, Minah," he said, waving his hand at her as she often did to him when he showed up.

Mina smiled and waved her hand back, saying something that was most likely a greeting in her language. Despite the language barrier, the two had somehow managed to communicate better than even Orion could communicate with her. Then again, understanding other cultures was part of Jazz's job.

"So what brings here in this jour, Jazz?" Orion asked.

"I just thought I'd let you know that I found some bots that may be able to help," Jazz grinned. "They're old friends of mine."

"That's great," Orion said. "But I must be going to the Hall of Records. I cannot shirk my duties."

"I agree," Jazz said. "That's why you will do that, and I will take Minah to my friends."

Orion was unsure about this idea. "Are you sure your friends can be trusted?" he asked. "I do not want to put Minah at risk. She is our friend, you know."

"Of course they can!" Jazz said. "They would never harm a living being such as Minah!"

Orion was still unconvinced, but he had no choice it seemed. For with that, Jazz turned and tried to communicate to Mina that they were goin somewhere.

**~Mina's PoV~**

I watched and listened as Jazz and Orion spoke. They said my name a couple times, which led me to believe they were talking about me and by Jazz's grin it as good news. Orion looked a little concerned, but Jazz didn't seem worried at all when he turned to me and began motioning to me, him then the door. I took it that meant we were going somewhere. He also pointed to my laptop and iPod, so I guessed he wanted me to bring those for some reason.

"Ok," I said, nodding to be sure Jazz knew I understood.

Orion said something to Jazz again as I walked over to get the two objects. I also grabbed my bag, which was empty due to the fact that I had taken everything out already, and stuck the two objects in it. I also put my notebook, sketchpad and some pencils in it, deciding that they may come in handy for me. It was surprising how much lighter the backpack was when I simply left out my text book and the binder I had had for that class.

"I guess I'll see you later then," I told Orion, even though I knew he couldn't understand me.

He still looked unsure, seemingly unconvinced by Jazz that whatever he had in mind was a good idea. I wasn't entirely sure myself, but I trusted Jazz as much as I trusted Orion. And if Orion was sure it was a bad idea, he would be doing more to argue, wouldn't he? I gave him a small wave as I stepped onto Jazz's hand. He waved back, clearly still unsure about what the gesture meant. He said something that from his tone might have been along the lines of 'be careful' and then Jazz responded with a cheerful maybe 'don't worry'.

Once we exited the apartment and parted ways with Orion, Jazz covered me with his other hand and I placed my visor back over my eyes. I then settled down for the ride, however long it would end up being. I had my back pack laying on top of me and I rested my head on my hands and one leg on my other. I didn't really have anything else to do, so I paid close attention to where we were going. We went left when we exited the building, which I could tell when we did by the way the air felt. Then we went straight for a while, I actually counted all the way to two hundred before we made a turn to the right. It was about half that when we made a left turn and then about three hundred counts when we made a right turn.

As we walked, I shifted every now and then and cracked my knuckles once in a while. I noted, with amusement, that whenever my knuckles made the loud popping sound, Jazz would twitch and loosen his grip again. It was almost funny how the mechs seemed to think I was hurt whenever that happened. Touching too though. I couldn't help but giggle a bit in my amusement the third time Jazz twitched because I cracked my knuckles. I wondered vaguely if it reminded them of something breaking or something.

About a hundred counts after our last turn, we finally came to a stop and Jazz knocked on a door. From the other side I could hear clanging and then what sounded like an explosion followed by more banging and clanging before the door opened to let out a bunch of smoke. I waved it away and coughed a little, leading Jazz to lift me above the smoke. In front of us stood a mech that stood taller than Jazz, but shorter than how tall Orion was, and was covered in ashes. I could make out that he was white, with an orange and a green stripe. He also had what seemed to be a mask across the bottom half of his face and fins on either side of his face that flashed as he and Jazz spoke. Like the three I have met, he had blue eyes.

After a few minutes, or whatever the equivalent was, another bot showed up, this one clearly a girl. She had red armor and blue eyes like the others. I was starting to wonder if every bot had blue eyes. After all, every bot I had seen so far had blue eyes. After another brief exchange and it seemed that the smoke had mostly cleared, the three bots entered the building, Jazz holding me in his hands. They didn't converse anymore until we were in a back room and when they were done, Jazz gently set me on a surface and removed his hands. I could hear the sharp intake of air from the other two as they stared at me in momentary shock.

"Um, hi?" I said, waving my hand, feeling quite self-conscious, even as I removed my backpack.

Jazz waved back and the mech covered in ash waved back, looking curious, while the female just looked at me in confusion. The unknown mech suddenly got really, really close to me, his face literally right in front of me as he spoke in clicks and whirls, his fins lighting up brightly enough that I knew I would be blinded if not for my visor. I backed up and ended up falling over when he poked me. That led to something only a bit surprising. The mech backed up with an exclamation of some of kind, and I had the undeniable urge to laugh, though I couldn't tell you why. I did prevent myself from laughing though, which wasn't hard considering how confused I was.

**~Normal PoV~**

"Oh no! I broke it!" Wheeljack exclaimed, reeling back from the organic in shock. To his surprise, Jazz just laughed his helm off and he glared at the silver mech.

"I do believe it is just fine," Aerial stated from where she was looking at the organic as it poked its head up to look at Wheeljack in confusion.

"Really? Marvelous!" Wheeljack said, back to his cheerful self immediately. "But, where did you find such a specimen?" He turned to look at Jazz, who had just sobered.

"A friend of mine has been sheltering her for some time now," Jazz replied. "We came across her a few mega-cycles ago. We've figured out that her name is Minah. Other than that we can't communicate much of anything." He watched as the young organic leaned on her small limbs and looked between the three of them. He knew she was trying to make sense of what they were saying, because she seemed to really want to understand from what he could tell.

"So that's why you ask me here," Aerial said. "To figure out how to communicate with her better. But why, Wheeljack?"

"I figured he could create a sort of translation device with your help," Jazz said. "So we don't have to teach every mech or femme she comes across right away."

"No problem," Wheeljack said happily, his fins flashing brightly. "I'll just need the basics of her language."

"Alright, Aerial, that means you're up," Jazz said.

"Wheeljack!" a new voice sounded through the building as the door burst open.

"Oh, hey Ratchet!" Wheeljack said happily.

"What have you blown up this time?" Ratchet demanded as he stormed in, the noise and clear anger in him spooking Mina enough so that she squeaked and hid behind that bag of hers. How she thought it would protect her from Ratchet was beyond Aerial, but she didn't pretend to understand her reasoning.

The squeak was enough to draw Ratchet's attention from Wheeljack and he turned his glare to the source. His glare didn't remain as he caught sight of the small being hiding beneath and even smaller object. His optics widened and for a moment Wheeljack thought the old medic's jaw was going to fall off.

Jazz chuckled. "You might want to close that doc, before you find yourself swallowing ash," he said in amusement.

Ratchet turned to glare at Jazz, the cultural investigator not even being phased by it. "Where did you find it?" he asked in a deadly calm voice.

"As I told the others, a friend and I came across her about a few mega-cycles ago," Jazz said. "We've been trying to figure out how to communicate with her."

Ratchet paused. "How do you it's a 'her'?" he asked curiously, gazing back at the being with curiosity. She seemed to shrink at his attention and he frowned.

"She just seems like a femme," Jazz said. "Her name is Minah, that much we know."

"But that's all we know until we figure out her language," Wheeljack supplied.

Ratchet sent another glare Wheeljack's way. "You aren't off the hook," he said. "If the High Council find out you're doing blowing things up, it won't just be your loss."

"Don't worry Ratchet," Wheeljack said. "I know that I'm not supposed to be doing this when I'm in the medical caste, but I won't let you take the blame."

Ratchet gave him a wary look as Wheeljack just looked on happily. Honestly, he had no problem with Wheeljack's interest in science. It was part of the medical field, just Wheeljack held more interest in the kind of science that usually the other science castes took on, with only some input from the medical caste. He disliked the caste system cause it kept bots like Wheeljack from reaching their full potential and sometimes even happiness. Shaking his helm, he turned his attention back to the small organic, his gaze softening when he saw the nervousness in her frame. It was probably overwhelming for her to be surrounded by four bots, three of which she didn't really know.

"So," Ratchet said. "You brought her here to find a way to communicate?"

"That's right," Jazz said. "You see, Aerial here is a linguist, so I thought she might be able to help. And then Wheeljack could make a translator device or something."

"Well, by all means," Ratchet said. He couldn't deny that he was curious as to where this organic came from.

Aerial took the following silence to mean she could make her attempts now. She leaned down to eye level with Mina, who looked at her from behind her visor. Aerial tried different dialects, but when it didn't work, the small organic seemed to get an idea, probably sparked from Jazz's insistence that she brought her electronics, and pulled said devices out of her bag. Aerial scanned each one and her optics brightened with understanding before she began talking to the organic in her language.

The three mechs just stared as Mina started emitting a noise that seemed like an organic form of laughter. It was shortly after that Aerial gave the three the information she had gathered, allowing them in on the conversation.

**~Mina's PoV~**

I was both surprised and relieved when the female bot started speaking English. When she gave her name I was happy to understand more than just that part of her sentence and I told her that I found it beautiful. When she relayed the same sentiment about my name, I couldn't help but giggle a little. Then she informed me that Orion and Jazz couldn't have done that because it wasn't part of their caste. Then she let the mechs in on the secret of communication. The white bot with fins had immediately exclaimed something akin to 'eureka!' and got to work on something at a table nearby.

_Well, someone had a eureka moment,_ I thought to myself, watching as he worked enthusiastically.

"So, now we can actually talk," Jazz said.

"About time too," I said. "I never was good at charades."

"Charades?" the large white and red one that had entered in an angry fashion asked.

"It's a game where you're not allowed to speak and have to try to communicate what you mean through gestures and stuff," I explained. "Some people are really good at it, but I'm not." I shook my head.

"I see," the mech said.

"This is Ratchet, by the way," Jazz said, putting a hand on the mech's shoulder, earning a glare from him. "He's from the med caste."

"Caste?" I asked.

The bots then explain the caste system to me as well as they could. Apparently, when they were born, or created or whatever, they were immediately given a caste and given guardians from said caste to train them up in the job. Jazz was a cultural investigator in the investigation caste while Aerial was in the linguistics caste and Orion was a data clerk. Ratchet and Wheeljack were both in the med caste, which meant they were like doctors. Wheeljack held more interest in other sciences though, but because of the caste system, he was stuck as a medic.

"That isn't right," I said, looking up at the bots with a look of annoyance. I shook my head. "Shouldn't he have a say in what he does? I mean, it's his life, isn't it?"

Ratchet sighed. "I do not how it is like on your planet, but here we do not have that freedom," he said, giving his comrade a regretful look.

I shook my head. "It's not a whole lot different back on Earth," I said. "There are many places on Earth where people are not given the freedom to choose either. Where I live…lived, though it was different. We had a say in what we do. It was, is, a freedom many take for granted. And many died to give us that freedom and still die to protect it." I sighed sadly.

"So, to the point we really need to know," Jazz said. "What are you doing here?"

I looked at the silver mech and sighed, taking off my visor and staring at it. "That, I do not know any better than you," I said. "I was just walking home from work a couple days before my birthday, there was a loud boom, a flash of blue and next thing I know I'm waking up in a giant metal city." I looked up at Jazz, pleading with my eyes that he'd believe me.

He nodded. "I just have one more question," he said. "What's a birthday? Is that like a creation day?"

"Um," I said. "Possibly. It's basically the day, er cycle?, that you were born in the year, or whatever the equivalent is here." I tilted my head. "It basically the day you celebrate when you came into existence and living through however much of your life you've lived through by then."

"It is like a creation day then," Ratchet said. "But it sounds like it is more important to your species than ours."

I nodded. "It's very important to most humans," I said. "It's basically the day you go 'yay, I survived another year of this crazy thing I call a life' without getting looked at weirdly." I chuckled some. "And usually it's also celebrated with gifts and special parties. I was supposed to go to this concert this year with some friends, but you see how that turned out. Instead I got a trip to another planet." I shrugged.

"Concert?" Aerial asked.

"Yeah, it's basically where a bunch of people gather to listen to live music," I said. "It's pretty great, but I hadn't ever been to one before, so some friends of mine were going to treat me."

"Music?" Jazz asked with a grin. "That sounds cool. You got any samples?"

"Well," I said and pointed to my iPod. "I have a lot of music on that, but it's dead and I don't know how to recharge it without the usual way of doing so. I don't have the cord that connects it to that, which is also out of battery power. So they're both pretty useless right now…"

"We can fix that," Jazz grinned. "Wheeljack can take a look at it."

I gave him a wary look as I stuck my visor on top of my head. "Are you sure he won't just blow them up? I have valuable stuff on that computer," I said. "Well, valuable to me anyway. And music kept me sane those first couple of cycles before the battery died."

"Hey!" Wheeljack exclaimed from where he was working. "I'll have you know, I am really good at this stuff."

"Ok, ok," I said, holding my hands up in surrender.

Our conversation was cut short when my stomach growled, quite loudly. Every bot in the room look at me and I rubbed my head sheepishly.

"What is that?" Jazz asked.

"My stomach," I said. "It means I need food. Nutrition, of some kind. That stuff you've been bringing has worked fairly well, Jazz, though I gotta tell ya, it doesn't taste very good."

Jazz chuckled and pulled some of said substance out of…somewhere and handed it to me as I made a face. I then took a bite and made another face.

"So that's what that expression's about," Jazz said.

"Yup, horrible taste," I said, sticking my tongue out. "But it keeps me from starving. And I don't feel like I'm missing any important nutrients so far. I wonder what this stuff is made of…" I looked at the bar curiously.

"It is made of…" Ratchet replied to my musing with a lengthy list of what it was made of and I tried very hard to pay attention to him, but he trailed off in his own language and lost me.

"I have no idea what you are saying," I said, sighing.

"I apologize, our knowledge of your language is limited," Ratchet said.

"Understandable," I said. "Just like I will likely never be able to speak yours. Humans can't really make noises like those." Then a thought occurred to me. "So what's gonna happen to me now?" I looked at Jazz. "No one's gonna like…experiment on me or anything, are they?"

It was Ratchet that a response came from. It sounded like he growled. "Absolutely not," he said. "We won't allow it. You are a sentient being, not a…" He said something in his language.

"I believe the term you are looking for is 'lab rat'," I said.

Ratchet sighed and pressed his finger to his forehead. "Yes, that," he said. "Point is, you are safe with us."

"And others?" I asked. "How do you I know you're government won't want to do stuff like that? Would they see me as threat?"

"Probably," Jazz replied. "But Orion and I already discussed this and the High Council will not learn of your presence here."

"High Council?" I asked.

"The High Council is the ruling body of Cybertron," Ratchet explained. "They're the ones who give us our castes and tell us what we can and can't do."

I huffed a little. "I don't like them," I said. "They shouldn't be controlling your lives like that."

"Even if the High Council agreed with you," Jazz said. "They have to answer to the Prime."

"Prime? I take it you aren't talking about prime numbers," I said. I got the mental image of a bunch of bots taking orders from prime numbers that ran around with stick arms and legs and large eyeballs and had to restrain my laughter.

"Huh?" Aerial asked.

"It's math," I said. "Sorry, I was a math tutor back home, I might have a tendency to make references to it. Prime numbers are numbers that can't be divided evenly, such as one, two, three, five, seven and more. I could go on a lecture about it, but I'm sure there are more important things."

Jazz chuckled. "The Prime I'm talking about is the leader of all Cybertronians," he said. "He's the one who put the caste system in place well before any of our time."

"Ok, that makes a lot more sense in my head now," I said. "I think I understand now. So, is it normal for bots from so many castes to be friends?"

"No," Ratchet said. "This kind of friendship is often discouraged and anything beyond is punishable by law."

"So like, if Aerial and Jazz liked each other more than as friends, they could be put in jail?" I asked, gaining a weird look on my face.

"That, or offlined," Jazz said.

I staggered back a bit, shaking my head. "Now that's just wrong," I said, waving my arms in front of me. "That's just like the idiots back on Earth who think a rich person can't marry a poor person no matter how they feel about each other. Ugh! What is wrong with the universe when love takes a backseat to politics or money?" I sighed and face palmed.

Jazz chuckled. "So I take it things like caste never mattered to you," he said.

"Even the ones back on Earth," I said. "It's not as bad as it seems to be here, but our society has its own form of castes. Some look down on others and others just don't care and some believe we should all be equal. I just always said screw it cause I never fit into any of those groups anyways and besides, I don't think I would want to hate for no better reason than someone's not like me. If everyone was the same, life would be boring!"

"Exactly!" Wheeljack exclaimed from where he was working and listening in.

Ratchet rolled his eyes at the two of us as I grinned at the finned mech. Jazz laughed loudly and Aerial simply looked unsure. As they all were still reacting to my speech, I calmly cracked my knuckles with a loud popping noise coming from all four of my fingers on one hand and three of them on the other. The sound had every bot looking at me in concern and I noted a little extra concern from Ratchet, which made sense seeing as how he was a doctor.

"Why do you do that?" Jazz asked.

"Oh," I said. "I'm just cracking my knuckles. You see, some liquid that usually floats around in the blood stream sometimes get caught in the joints, which can be quite uncomfortable, so to alleviate the feeling I crack whatever joint it happens in as that releases the stuff back into the bloodstream and its movement is what causes the popping noise. As long as I don't do it too hard, it doesn't hurt anything. It usually is in the knuckles for me," I indicated where my fingers met my hand, "but it can happen anywhere there's a joint. My toes and feet will sometimes crack, but not as loudly. I've also had it in my wrists, shoulders, neck and back." I indicated each while I explained. "I have heard that it is a sign of dehydration, but I am not one hundred percent sure as I'm not really a medical knowledgeable person." I shrugged and cracked my knuckles again, though the pops weren't as loud this time.

"It sounds like you're breaking something," Jazz said, even as I shivered as a tingling ran through me and Ratchet gave a thoughtful 'hmm'.

"Trust me, you'll know if I break something," I said, sighing. "Broken bones are very painful. The sound is a bit different, more like a cracking instead of popping. A dislocated joint might sound similar, but if I did that, you would also hear me cry, not just a disturbing sound."

"You know a lot about breaking things in your body," Ratchet said, pulling something out of nowhere and handed it to me.

I was surprised to find that it was water, but grateful as I took an experimental sip. "I broke my arm before in the past," I said. "It was a painful experience." I rubbed at my right arm, remembering how painful those weeks in a sling were. "It didn't help any either, that the doctors didn't put it in a proper sling for my broken elbow. The doctor who finally got it all right called the others all incompetent idiots."

Ratchet chuckled. "I like that guy," he said.

"I did too," I said. "Next time we needed a doctor, we didn't waste time with the others."

Jazz chuckled that time. "Sounds smart," he said.

We continued to talk for what seemed like several hours, but I wasn't sure the precise amount of time since I had no way of telling. They told me more about what life was like on Cybertron and I told them what my life was back on Earth. I found out that the amusement park looking place I had seen from Orion's window was indeed an amusement park. I also discovered that none of the bots in this room had ever been there before. Apparently those of their castes just never saw it.

"You mean your caste affects whether you can go to an amusement park or not?" I asked in surprise.

"That's right, little femme," Jazz said and I made an odd look again.

"Huh," I said. "Amusement parks aren't the cheapest places to go back on Earth, but anyone can go if they can get the money. Even I've been to one and I was what would be considered an outcast."

"Outcast? But you're so nice," Wheeljack said as he walked up with a tiny little device in his hand.

I sighed and kicked at the ground. "I was not very popular back home," I said. "I never conformed to the social norms, so many didn't like me, because I was different. People don't like what's different, it doesn't matter if you're nice or not, if you didn't believe or acted like they did, they didn't like you. Because I wasn't ever afraid to be myself, I kinda made myself an outcast. I had few friends and never really fit in anywhere, because most people around my area looked down on me for my….eccentricities, which means differences basically. Like a lot different."

"Similar to how castes don't typically socialize with each other," Ratchet observed. He looked around the room before back at the organic. "You have friends here, Mina."

"Yeah," Jazz said. "The four of us and Orion are your friends now."

I smiled. "Thanks," I said, feeling genuinely happy now that we could communicate.

"Anyway, I am finished," Wheeljack said and handed the tiny device down to me. I took it in my palm and stared at it. There were two pieces, one that looked like a necklace and another that appeared to be an earpiece. "Put this one around your neck and the other on your audio and it should act as a translating device. If it works that is."

"One way to find out," I said. I paused then. "Are you sure it won't blow up? Cause, despite everything, I'm quite fond of living."

"Um," Wheeljack didn't look completely sure.

"Perhaps we should wait until you have tested it," Ratchet said, taking the device from me.

"I suppose," Wheeljack said and he looked really disappointed.

"Don't worry Wheeljack," I said. "I'm sure you can find a way to make sure it won't explode without attaching it to my head!"

"Yeah, you're right, thanks Mina!" Wheeljack said happily and I grinned as he practically skipped back over to his work table.

"Anyway, Orion should be here soon," Jazz said. "I sent him a comm. when he got off his shift so he would know where to find us."

"And I can finally talk with the mech I've been living with!" I said happily. I paused and blinked at the amused looks of those around me. "You, anyone from back home would take that the completely wrong way."

That caused Aerial and Ratchet to look at me in confusion, but Jazz just burst out laughing.

_Journal Entry #34 New Friends_

_Finally!_

_I could not tell you how refreshing it was to spend a day _talking_ with those around me without us all guessing at what each other was saying. When I told the mechs and single femme this I got a mix of understanding and amusement. All of them were amused, because I seemed to have a way of saying things in ways that will amuse anyone. Well, Ratchet was hard to tell, as if he was amused he hid it well, but I had a feeling the mech was always like that._

_Anyway, apparently my comment about how cracking my joints could be a sign of dehydration, Ratchet had performed a minor medical scan on me and saw my body was indeed trying to make up for lack of enough water in my system, along with lack of some other nutrients that we would have to work together to figure out what they are. Hence why he had pulled water out of his subspace-so he called it._

_Subspace-apparently a 'pocket' of some kind that every bot possessed, but could only access their own 'pocket' despite it not being physically attached to their frames. Apparently it could hold any number of things with no known space limit. The only thing he said they couldn't put it was living beings. Supposedly some bot accidentally put a retro-rabbit in their subspace once and when it came back out only seconds later, it was suddenly sick and soon died._

_I think he decided never to tell me of animals dying again after hearing my sob of 'poor bunny'. Well, once he knew how come I called a retro-rabbit a bunny. Who knew our animals were so alike yet so different!_

_Wheeljack and Ratchet both asked me endless questions about humans and other life on earth. I was perfectly happy giving them answers as they answered every question I asked._

_Until they asked me how humans reproduced._

_I don't think my face had ever been that red before in my life._

_I think I gave Ratchet a heart attack as he started freaking out when he noticed my drastic rise in temperature and the sudden concentration of blood in my face._

_It was only made worse when Orion walked in to find the medic hovering over me._

_My roommate was not pleased._

_Until he figured out Ratchet was only concerned over my well-being because of sudden changes in my temperature and face color._

_Then _he_ started fusing as well._

_That is, until I finally spoke up and said I was fine and advised the two guilty mechs to never ask me about human reproduction again. Or any kind of reproduction actually, as humans were very sensitive about the subject._

_Then I realized a small detail I had forgotten. I had to retract what I had said, but said I would only tell Ratchet since he was a doctor and only because I just realized that I had an issue. _

That_ one just couldn't wait, so Ratchet chased all the others out of the room for me to explain a _lot_ just for us to figure out some solution to my dilemma. After all, I didn't want to bleed all over Orion's apartment…_

_God, why'd I have to be a girl?_

_Ratchet was actually disturbed and concerned over the fact that the loss of the life blood was _normal_ for females of my kind. That opened up a whole other can of worms._

_I just told him it was woman's curse and left it at that._

_I hope I _never_ have to have that conversation again…_

_~Mina Castina_


	6. The Start of Something

**A/N: **Writer's block oh how I loathe thee. I wanted to get this done an posted by Friday, but, as you can tell, it didn't happen that way. I couldn't figure out what to write at one point and then I got distracted by my muse demanding I start work on one of my future stories and it wanting to create cat icons of some of the bots, which you can see on my deviantart, which is linked to on my profile. So, I got icons and the start of one of the future stories and now, finally, this update. I won't be posting the new story's beginning anytime soon though, as I am not posting anything aside for updates for AWA, IAPA, YWOB and this story until I get at least one of them completed. Just so you know.

Anyway, now that I've finally got the chapter done, enjoy! After the remainder of my author's note anyway…

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked." ~Proverbs 10:2-3 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Top Kicker: **Thanks! :D Glad you like it.

**Mikaela the Cat: **Yeah…I would only trust…Ratchet! Lol. I don't trust other medics…

**Sci-Fifan95: **Yup! Lol. I figured it'd be a good idea and give a better insight on why the war started in the first place. Glad you liked it! :)

**Luna Uchiha666: **Haha! The woes of being a girl. Glad you liked it! :)

**soundwavesfangirl250: **chpt3- I agree. I don't get why people hate, especially if they call themselves Christians. Jesus says we should love even our enemies. :| Mexico! I've heard various opinions of the place… chpt5- Sorry?

**Foresthunter: **Glad you like it. :D

**Vivian Hale: **Indeed. Lol. The vote, however, at this point is pointing toward another RatchetxOC story. ^.^' Glad you like it. :) Indeed.

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you liked it. :)

Oh! Yeah! I almost forgot until I typed my response I had for Viv's review. The poll! The poll I have up for this I am going to keep up until my next update of this story. That means another round of updating between now and when it is closed. The current results are as follows:

Transform or No?

Yes- 20

No- 2

Paired?

Ratchet- 10

Jazz- 5

Wheeljack- 3

Nobody- 2

Sunstreaker- 1

Other- 1(whoever voted this one, could you please inform me who you had in mind?)

Sideswipe- 0

So there you have it. At this rate, Mina will become Cybertronian eventually in the story. The pairing vote has Ratchet winning and Jazz has half the number of votes as he does. Wheeljack comes in third, followed by Nobody, followed by Sunstreaker and Unknown, and Sideswipe is last with zero votes. I would've thought Sides would've gotten more votes than Sunny, but oh well.

As I said, the vote is open till chapter 7 is up for this story. So any of you who has yet to vote, please put in your votes!

And now! On with the story!

**Chapter 6: The Start of…Something**

_Journal Entry #39 Friends_

_Friend._

_A word only few had ever been referred to as by me. I did not let myself get close to anyone easily. But Orion and Jazz had proven to me that they would not harm me even before we could communicate well. That had been enough that I hadn't labeled them as enemies._

_Now we could talk and over the past couple days, that's all we did when in each other's presence. Either I would tell them stories from Earth about different things, keeping them happy things, or they would tell me more about what was going on here. Orion told me things he had learned from his long time working in the Hall of Records. Apparently, Cybertron wasn't always the way it was now. It was once a much better place._

_Ratchet had even came by, ignoring the odd looks the others in the apartment complex gave him, to check on me. Apparently he was still concerned about that thing I told him about. I repeated that it was nothing to worry about and that I was fine beside mild discomfort. He then hung around to listen to me retell a day of craziness with my high school friends when we were at a flag competition and then comment how I missed the carefree days that I had oh so rarely._

_By now I had decided that at least Orion and Jazz were my friends. The others were still up in the air._

_~Mina Castina_

I looked up and sighed at the sight before me as I placed my notebook and writing utensil down. I crossed my arms and tilted my head in contemplation. Orion, seemingly quite preoccupied with something, had ended up working on his data pad wordlessly as I drew in my sketchpad. He would've forgotten his Energon had I not asked him about it. He did, however, forget to move to his room before falling into recharge, which is what they called sleep. He hadn't even finished the Energon before he fell into a deep slumber of which I couldn't wake him up from. So now I was left with an oversleeping mech at the desk instead of the usual, ready to go by now mech.

Shaking my head, I walked to the mech and poked his head.

"Orion," I said. "Time to wake up." I poked him again.

I got no response. Not even a twitch from the mech.

I frowned, putting my hands on my hips. "Hmm," I wondered. "How does one wake up a fifty-foot tall being of metal?"

I stood there on the desk, thinking for a moment as I looked over the mech. I noticed some exposed wires and cables in his neck that I could probably reach. If their anatomy was anything even remotely similar to humans, those cables and wires might just be sensitive. Maybe if I poked one of those instead of his well armored head or forearms. Sighing, I walked a bit closer, climbed up his limp forearm so I could reach, reached over and poked one of the large cables and braced myself in case it worked.

"…" I glared when it did absolutely nothing. Well, it didn't quite do nothing, he did twitch and roll his head to its other side.

I sighed and shook my head. "Why is it I'm always stuck waking up the heavy sleepers?" I asked myself. "Next thing I know he'll mumble that he'll kill me in his sleep and then wake up to find me missing cause I went and hid in the hole. And then he'll apologize later." I sighed, shaking my head. I knew that was an unlikely series of events.

That didn't solve my problem though. Well, it was more his problem than mine, but he was officially a friend now, so his problems became my problems by default. There had to be some way to wake him up. If I had my laptop back from Wheeljack I would be able to create what would hopefully be a loud enough noise to wake him like that, but I knew I couldn't yell that loud. I was a quiet person. Yelling was not one of my strong suites.

"Dilemma dilemma," I sighed, resting my head in my hand where I stood precariously on Orion's forearm. I shrugged and decided I might as well try yelling and sucked in as much air as my poor lungs could hold, ignoring the slight pain in my chest. "HEY!" I yelled as loud as I could muster.

I decided I should've gotten off his arm before trying that. It worked, but the only thing that saved me from going splat on the floor was a combination of my quick reflexes and his quick reflexes. I reached out and grabbed a finger of his hand that had darted to catch me, but only barely missed and I was left dangling from his finger until he moved me over the desk and I was able to let go. Not bad for a couple of beings who sat in a chair all solar cycle.

"Minah?" Orion asked. "What are you doing?"

"Waking you up," I said with slight irritation. "You are usually out the door by now. And you haven't even drank your morning Energon. Not to mention you still have half a cube from last night left unfinished." I pointed to said half empty cube.

"Oh sl…scrap," Orion said, almost letting out one of those Cybertronian curses when he realized what I said was true. He grabbed the half empty cube and downed it before he began gathering the data pads he had been working on and putting them in his subspace.

"Wait!" I said when he started to move away.

He sighed when he stopped. "Minah, I must get to the Hall of Records," he said.

"I want to go with you," I said. "Something's up and I want to know what. I may have not known you long, but I know you're not one to fall asleep at the desk on a regular basis."

"You're not going, someone could see you," Orion said.

I could've face-palmed. Really? "Orion, I am perfectly capable of remaining out of sight," I said. "I can't just sit here on my butt all day when you're so obviously worried about something."

"You don't need to worry about it," Orion said. "We'll find a way to send you home and you will have no reason to worry about what happens here."

"No reason? Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. "Then what are you and Jazz, chopped liver?"

He gave me an odd look. "What does a human organ have to do with this matter?" he asked.

I face-palmed this time. "Figure of speech," I said. "I'm saying you and Jazz, and the others that I've met even, are reason enough for me to worry. You are my friend. By default, that means your problems are my problems too."

"Regardless," Orion said. "It is safer for you if you remain here and don't get involved. If one of my fellow Data Clerks saw you, they wouldn't be so quick to keep their mouths shut to the higher ups."

"I'm good at keeping out of sight!" I protested.

"The answer is no," Orion said, his tone leaving no room for any further argument.

I sighed. "Fine, I'll see you later then," I said. "But I still want to know what has you so worried!"

Orion sighed. "Later. Now, I must go to work," he said. He reached over and rubbed the top of my head with a finger. "Stay out of trouble."

"You too," I said. "And tell Alpha Trion that I said 'hi' for me."

Orion chuckled and then he left, leaving me alone to my own devices. Sighing, I sat down with my sketchpad and a pencil and worked on a drawing I had been working on for the past couple of cycles.

**~Later, Normal PoV~**

Orion's station at the Hall of Records was on the eighteenth floor and third from the northwest corner where he was lucky enough to have a window and a nice cool breeze, along with a nice view of the lights of Iacon. It was from there that he listened to transmissions and filed them away in the appropriate places. And it was from there that he had been picking up the transmissions from Kaon and Slaughter City that were surprisingly philosophical.

Kaon and the Badlands that stretched between it and the Hydrax Plateau were where the materials that drove Cybertronian civilization was both mined and refined. Kaon was also home to the gladiator pits, a place of illegal fighting and death. The High Council turned a blind optic to the illegal pits and to the deaths of the bots in them. They would do so as long as the Badlands continued to fuel the rest of Cybertron.

As Orion listened to the latest transmission from Megatronus, he wondered how long that would continue.

"Are Cybertronians not all made of the same materials? My alloys are the same as those in the frame of a High Councilor; my lubricants are the same as the ones that lubricated the joints of the Thirteen themselves!" Megatronus said, his voice scraped and rasped like one of the machines in the factories of Kaon.

Orion had to admit, that the gladiator brought up a good point. He looked around at his fellow Cybertronians in his caste. They would all spend their careers monitoring and cataloging, simply because they were told to. It had been that way since long before Orion Pax was created. Yet, they were made of the same materials as the High Council members. What reasoning had gone into choosing the jobs of mechs and femmes?

"We are individuals! Once we were free!" Megatronus's voice sounded in Orion's helm.

Orion briefly thought about what his fellow data clerks would do if they were hearing this speech instead of him. They would likely report him to the High Council, who would then likely put a stop to Megatronus's transmissions.

"Soundwave, you and Shockwave will carry on my work if I disappear," Megatron said. "You are my trusted lieutenants."

"Lieutenants?" a second voice piped up. "Are you now the general of an army?"

Orion paused. He had not yet heard this voice before. A peruse of his index he kept proved it, this was a new bot to the conversations. It was neither Shockwave nor Soundwave, for he had records of them, as he had for everybot that he heard in these transmissions. He kept careful track of Megatronus's associates. So who was this new voice?

It was not part of Orion's job to investigate, that was a different caste. What he could do, however, was go to Alpha Trion for advice and guidance. He sampled the new voice and set to work on a report for Alpha Trion. Alpha Trion was his mentor and friend, but he couldn't present himself to him during work without a good reason and without being prepared.

**~Meanwhile, Mina's PoV~**

I whistled randomly as I worked on my drawing. It was too quiet in my opinion, hence the whistling in an attempt to ignore the quiet. It wasn't any quieter than it usually was when Orion was gone, but I had a feeling that things weren't going to be peaceful for a whole lot longer. It was just a feeling and it could simply be that the silence was starting to get to me, but it made me nervous nonetheless. I had wanted to go with Orion to try to learn what had him so concerned and also to distract me from my feeling of unease. Granted, the feeling stemmed from the fact something was bothering my friend, but trying to get to the bottom of it would've helped me find my own kind of peace.

"_You can't have peace without having all the pieces of the puzzle,"_ a friend of mine had once said.

My puzzle was far from complete. I had so many different questions it wasn't funny. What was that odd light that I saw just before arriving here? What brought me here? Why was I here? What had Orion so troubled? Who was this Megatronus guy I heard him and Jazz talk about before? What's going on back home? Are they searching for me or have I been declared dead? Will I ever see my family again? How is my cat fairing without me? What's going to happen next?

_My old puzzle is just gone,_ I thought to myself. _Replaced with this new, incomplete one._ Of course, I knew what my old friend would say to that.

"_Then wait for God to fill in the holes,"_ they would say. _"Just make sure you use the answers you find correctly."_

I shook my head of my thoughts. How was I supposed to know the correct way to use the answers? Especially when I was so small…I growled a little at the thought as I drew the final line in my picture.

"_I'm not small! I'm fun-sized!" _

I couldn't help but snort at the thought as I shook my head. It would figure that the thought would lead to hearing my high school friend's words in my head. She had said that every time someone called her small ever since we saw a picture of Yoda from Star Wars that said "Yoda isn't small, he is fun-sized" on it.

I shook my head again. "I sure do have random thoughts when it's too quiet," I said to myself.

I looked at my now completely drawn picture that now only needed to be inked and colored. It was a drawing of all of the bots I had met so far and myself. I was standing on a desk in front, looking up at the mechs with a look of wonder on my face, though it was hard to tell since my back was to the front of the picture. The mech right in front of me was Orion and to his right was Jazz and his left was Alpha Trion. Beside Jazz was Wheeljack, who had Ariel on his other side. On the other side of Alpha Trion was Ratchet. All the bots were either grinning, smiling or looking at me in curiosity. Wheeljack had some ash on him from a recent explosion, reminiscent of what he looked like when I first met him.

The picture wasn't perfect, obviously I hadn't had much practice drawing giant alien robots, or a human as small as I had to draw myself so that scale was right. But it was good enough for a first try. I had done a lot of erasing to get it to look as good as it did.

After being satisfied that at this point in time I wouldn't get it to look any better than it already did, I set my pencil down and picked up my pen. I then started going over the lines with my pen, being careful not to stray from the marked lines and not to mess up the drawing. With pen, there were no second chances. It was either do it well or face a not-as-good picture. Hence, the reason why I always drew pictures in pencil first before going over them with pen.

I was just finishing the inking job when Orion finally returned from the Hall of Records. I looked up from my work as he entered and watched as he walked over to the Energon dispenser before getting a cube and filling it with the substance. He then sat down at the desk and sipped his Energon, looking thoughtful.

"Hey OP," I said.

Orion jerked a little. He must've been deep in thought. "Hello, Minah," he said, nodding his head in my direction. He saw my sketch pad. "What are you working on?"

"A picture," I said. I looked down at it with slight frustration. "It is not the greatest I've ever done, but I don't really have practice drawing giant mechanical beings."

Orion chuckled at that. "May I see it?" he asked, looking curious.

I closed my sketchpad, hiding my work. "It is not done yet," I said. "I have this thing where I don't like showing people uncompleted works, it is nothing against you. But you may see it once it is completed. All that's left really is to color it…with what remains of my colored pencils."

"Perhaps we could see if Wheeljack could create more for you," Orion said, his optics flashing briefly to my ever shrinking pencils.

"I don't really see Wheeljack making something like this," I said, holding up my practically gone purple pencil.

"Hmm," Orion said, taking a sip of his Energon. "He may. We do not know him well enough to know what he would or wouldn't make."

"True," I said, setting the pencil back in my colored pencil box. I looked up at Orion. "So, are you going to tell me what's been bugging you now? Maybe I could give some good outside advice." I shifted so that my legs were crossed in front of me where I sat and folded my hands in my lap.

Orion sighed, probably still thinking I shouldn't be worried about it. "It's these transmissions I have been picking up while monitoring the air waves," he said.

I stared at him a few seconds, the words 'big brother is watching' running through my head for some reason. I figured it was just because my mom used to say that whenever the topic of telephone calls being monitored came up. I blinked and shook the thought out of my head.

"What kind of transmissions?" I asked, my tone both wary and curious.

"They are from a mech who calls himself Megatronus," Orion said. "He is a gladiator in Kaon and, like all them, he began without a name."

"A gladiator? Reminds me of ancient Rome, at least I think it was the Romans…" I said, looking thoughtful. I blinked, noticing Orion's look and sighed. "Nevermind. Please continue. What are these transmissions about?"

Orion shook his head at me. "In one of his most recent transmissions he was talking about how all of us Cybertronians are made from the same alloys and have the same lubricants," he said, then he paused and looked at me.

I nodded. "I understand," I said. "You are all made of the same kind of stuff."

Orion nodded. "He was talking about how even though we are all made from the same materials, we do not all have the freedom that the higher castes do and he referenced the time when Cybertronians were free to make their own decisions," he said.

"It's starting to sound like he wants a revolution," I observed.

"He has referred to two of his followers as his lieutenants," Orion said.

"Hmm," I hummed thoughtfully. "Definitely sounds like he's prepared to go to war for what he wants. Do you know anything else?"

"Alpha Trion has discovered a bit more than I have," Orion said. "Megatronus did not start out planning a revolution, but by taking out the gangs who run the gladiator pits in Kaon and Slaughter City."

"Slaughter City?" I asked, looking incredulous. "That sounds like a place you go to die."

Orion blinked at my observation.

"It does," I said, shrugging. "Sorry, I observe the most random things at times and it is way too quiet here when you are away for me. I am not used to silence. It makes me nervous."

"I apologize," Orion said, reaching over and rubbing my back gently with a finger. "I did not mean for you be nervous."

"It is fine," I said, sighing. "I will just have to get used to it. Anyways, you were explaining what Trion found out?"

"Yes," Orion said and taking his hand away from me. "This Megatronus wants to restore Cybertron to its former greatness, saying this and taking his when he took down one of the low-level crime bosses. He appears to have gathered quite a following as well."

"Hmm," I said. "What does Trion have to say about all of this?" I waved a hand in front of me, not thinking about the fact Orion would have no idea what the gesture meant.

"He says it's the fruit of discouraging ambition," Orion said. "We live in a certain world and few imagine what it would be like to live in another."

"It's the fruit of it alright," I said, sighing. "When you discourage people from doing what they want, after so long someone will stand against it all."

"Alpha Trion says that some still remember a time when things were different and what other worlds were like," Orion said. "He said some are still foolish enough to wish that we might live in such a world again."

I smiled. "Dreams," I said. "No matter how things go, there will always be dreamers. Have you ever wondered what other worlds were like?"

Orion looked at me briefly. "I was…curious," he said.

"Only curious?" I asked, my eyes widening. "Oh man, I used to dream about seeing worlds other than my home, meeting aliens and going on cool adventures through the stars. Growing up I wanted to be those people I saw in movies who literally lived among the stars and explored the unknown reaches of space. Of course, human technology is nowhere near advanced enough for that kind of thing, so it was a dream I never thought would ever happen. And now I'm here." I blinked and looked up at Orion.

Orion chuckled at my excitement while I explained my old dreams. "Looks like you got your dream," he said.

"Yeah, though I wish it didn't seem like you guys are in for a rough ride," I said, making a face.

"What do you mean?" Orion asked, looking concerned and curious.

"You said Megatronus called a couple of his followers lieutenants, right?" I asked and he nodded. "That's a military rank," I pointed out. "It sounds like he's gathering an army. I don't about Cybertron's history, but from what I know of Earth's, whenever a random upstart gathers a lot of followers, a battle breaks out, though it is not always the intention of the person or their fault entirely. From what I hear from you so far, this Megatronus wants freedom for the Cybertronian race. If that's true, it is a cause worth fighting for."

"You doubt it is really what he wants," Orion observed from my tone.

"I'm saying, sometimes things aren't always as they seem," I said, shaking my head and holding my hands out helplessly. "And we do not yet know what his methods to reach his goals are. In the end, only time will tell."

Orion nodded. "I will continue monitoring his transmissions," he said. "In the meantime, let me ask you something."

"Fire away," I said.

"You said something about a 'Rome'?" he sounded so curious that the statement sounded more like a question.

I smiled. "Earth history, my friend," I said. "There's a city back on Earth called Rome. It's different now than it was in the time I mentioned when I absently made a side note out loud earlier. But a very, very long time ago, well, a long time for us humans anyways, the Romans, that is, people who lived in Rome, had gladiatorial arenas. People fought and died in those arenas because they didn't have a choice. The gladiators were slaves to the Roman government."

"Is it still the same way?" Orion asked.

I shook my head. "No," I said. "For one thing, slavery is illegal all over the world now. And Rome is also no longer an empire as it was back in those days. It is now the capital city of the country of Italy."

"Country?" Orion asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Unlike Cybertron, Earth isn't just one big planet. Earth is seventy percent covered in water and what isn't water is land. There are seven continents, which have different countries in them, which have different states or regions in them, which have cities in them. There are some cities that share the same name as other cities, so usually one would have to clarify which one you are talking about. Someone told me once they were from London and I thought they were from half way around the world, but as it turned out they were talking about a London that was in the state I lived in." I shook my head, remembering how confuse I had been cause I had never known that before then.

"That could get confusing," Orion observed.

"I was so confused when I learned there was a city named London in Ohio," I said, shaking my head. "I had always thought there was only one London and it was the capital of Britain. I was never very good at that part of history class to begin with." I rubbed my head sheepishly.

Orion chuckled. "I see," he said.

_Journal Entry #40 Developments_

_Things develop, that's all there is to it._

_It's hard to tell how long whatever is going to happen has been developing, but I knew something was developing. And I had a feeling I landed with a bot that was going to be very involved in the coming…whatever it was._

_Orion told me more about what this Megatronus said in his transmissions as we continued our evening chat and I told him more about Earth, well, about what I knew about Earth. Living on a planet for twenty years didn't equal knowing everything about said planet. Orion couldn't tell me every detail of Cybertron either as he had never been outside of Iacon._

_Jazz and Aerial both popped in for a visit as well and I immediately noticed that Orion seemed to be taking an interest in Aerial, though he hid it well. While Aerial herself didn't notice, Jazz and I both noticed him staring at her when she had her back turned to him when she was talking to me._

_What do you know? There is a such thing as love at first sight. Well, maybe it's just a crush at this point, but it was enough for me and Jazz to whisper to each other that maybe someday we'd see a mini-OP or a mini-Aerial running around. Not that either of them seemed to be aware of any of it. But we knew before that could happen, something needed to change._

_~Mina Castina_


	7. Discussion, Battle, Discussion, Sisters

**A/N: **Hey all. Sorry for taking so long to update this story. I seem to be taking longer to write chapters and I have four stories I am currently writing. *ruds head sheepishly* I will try to update more often after I finish A World Apart, which is only so many chapters away from being completed. But you see, there are reasons why I might not be able to update any faster. It depends on how much and how fast I can write my chapters. You see there's this thing called a job.

I now have a job! My job hunt is finally over! *does a little victory dance* I haven't started it yet, but I do in fact have the job. I am just waiting for the paperwork to go through and I also need to do some online training before starting on the job training. But when I do start it is at Subway in the nearby mall as a Sandwich Artist. :D I don't know my hours yet, I will get those after I do my online training, but I have to wait for the paperwork to go through first.

Anyway, next on my agenda is It's a Prime Adventure, just so ya'll know what one will be next to update in case you were wondering.

Oh! Almost forgot. Another thing I need to say. You remember that poll I had? Well, turns out it was all for naught. I tried to give you guys a say! I hope you can forgive my muse for making a decision that made your votes invalid. But it's a decision you will find will make things interesting I promise! It is going to remain a surprise though. ;P I will tell you this though, Mina is not going to turn Cybertronian, or at least not full-on Cybertronian, I'm thinking Techno-organic, kinda like Sari in Animated. My muse is still working on how to make it happen. She is also, at this point, not going to be paired with anybody.

**A/N2:** Blah! i forgot to do this when I updated. Terms used in this chapter are not all mine. I noticed the book used the term mechanos when describing the size of the gladiatorial pits so I went from there figuring out words for distance and stuff.

One mechano is equal to ten of our feet.

One ano is equal to one of our feet.

It takes ten anos to make one mechano.

Other terms used are "Opiluk" and "Danniluk" which are explained in the chapter. Before anyone goes, "hey I recognize those terms! You stole them!" or "Oh, I guess they are free to use without permission." and use them without asking the proper person or think those words are my own when they aren't. They belong to Lunar Mist, author of the story Through a Cybercat's Optics. She gave me permission to use them in this story and YWOB.

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident." ~Proverbs 14:16 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Sci-Fifan95: **Yup. Lol. Indeed you should. :P Glad you liked it.

**KayleeChiara: **Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :)

**soundwavesfangirl250:** :D Thanks! Glad you liked it!

**qaz1234:** Thanks! I'm glad you like it. :)

**AndromedaAI:** I didn't know that. Lol. That's great! The world needs more dreamers. ^.^ Everyone's changing their names! XD

**Jayna Prime: **I am glad you liked it sis. ^.^

**LonelyLullabyOwl: **Owl City? I haven't heard of them, but I'll check them out. ^.^ A crush, huh? Lol. Is this the part where I tease you? Lol.

**sisterawesomeness: **Thanks! I'll try. :)

**Chapter 7: Discuss, Battle, Discuss, Sisters…**

_Journal Entry #45 A Little Scared_

_I would never admit to my new friends this feeling I felt whenever I heard about this Megatronus person. So far his intentions seemed to be good. But so do the intentions of most politicians until they get what they are initially after, then many regret voting for them. But Megatronus wasn't a politician, he was a gladiator who worked in the smelting pits. I couldn't compare him to the corrupt people in leadership positions on Earth._

_Perhaps it wasn't really Megatronus who had me worried, but what was likely to come. I kept having this foreboding sense that I wouldn't have to worry about it being too quiet while Orion was away from the apartment at some time soon. How soon was soon was anyone's guess if I trusted that feeling. My confusing dreams didn't help the matter either._

_Whether or not I would be here when it happened, I was a little bit scared for my new Cybertronian friends. I had a vague sense of where things were going. Vague enough that I didn't have a grasp on if Megatronus was a good guy or a bad guy in the grand scheme of it all, but clear enough to know it was going to be a rough road. I just hoped my friends would find the right path._

_~Mina Castina_

I yawned and stretched my arms above my head as I rubbed sleep out of my eyes. I hadn't gotten much sleep during the night time due to some weird dreams. On top of that, Orion had woken me up early, saying he was going to bring me with him. He was getting more worried as well, though he was in more of a position to do something about it and find out more about what was going on. He was still concerned about his co-workers spotting me, however, so he left me with Alpha Trion in the ancient mech's office. That was where I was now, leaning against the jar of ink Alpha Trion used for writing in his book.

"You've grown quite comfortable among us, I see," Alpha Trion observed as he glanced at me as he dipped his quill. It seemed an ancient practice to write with quill and ink, even to me.

"Hard not to when you live with Orion Pax and have met more than one of you," I said. I pushed my visor up a bit from where it had slid down my nose. "You guys are huge. It's either get used to it or have a mini-panic attack every five minutes. I have enough stressing without being terrified of bots who don't want to hurt me. Can I ask you something?"

"You may," Alpha Trion said, pausing in his work as I closed my makeshift journal.

"Do you believe in the possibility that someone could have dreams about the future?" I asked, looking up at the mech from behind my visor.

"Before I answer your question, I must ask my own," Alpha Trion said. "What are dreams?"

I stared up at the mech for a moment before remembering that the bots didn't already know what many words meant. It wasn't like I had had a dictionary on either my iPod or my laptop. Then I had to think of a way to explain what dreams are.

"Well," I said, twirling my pen between my fingers. "They are mental images, emotions and sounds, pretty much anything one would experience while awake, except it is only in one's mind and happens when one is asleep, or in recharge as you guys call it."

"Ah, yes, I understand what you mean now," Alpha Trion said. "Some of us are gifted with the ability to see into the future." He tapped his fingers on the pages of his ginormous book as if in thought. "It is a very rare gift indeed. But, why are you asking?"

I adjusted my visor again and shifted so that I was fully facing Trion, rather than turning my head to look at him. "I've been having some weird dreams lately," I said. "They have me worried, because I have had dreams in the past where at a later date, the events that were in my dream came to pass exactly as they had in my dream. Most people I have talked to about it put it off as coincidence, but I find a hard time believing that."

"Hmm," Alpha Trion hummed in thought. "What are these dreams you are having?"

"Usually battles," I said. "I am usually fighting alongside a group of bots against other bots. But I am unsure who we are fighting. I would know them if I saw them, my dreams are very detailed and clear in the picture. One I had last night, I was looking over a very damaged city and in the distance I saw a lot of explosions. I do not know how to tell the difference between dreams that are of the future and aren't. But I do worry about what is to come. Something doesn't sit right in my gut about this Megatronus. His intentions are good from what Orion has told me, but things are not always as they seem."

"Indeed," Alpha Trion said. "I share your concern. I am also concerned about you, as it appears you will get caught up in the coming conflict."

I shrugged. "Come what may, Orion is my friend, whatever I can do to help him, I will," I said.

"'Come what may'?" Alpha Trion asked.

"Whatever may come, whatever the future holds, no matter what," I explained. "I have faith Orion will do what is right. He's my friend and to me that means I trust him and will help him. You should always trust and help your friends."

Alpha Trion smiled briefly but then seemed to sigh and he got back to work in his large book. "I am sure Orion Pax will appreciate your faith in him," he said. "I have no doubt he will need someone willing to show that faith in the near future."

I looked at the old bot curiously. "What does that mean?" I asked.

"I am afraid I cannot divulge that information," Alpha Trion said.

I gave the old bot an analyzing look, trying to find a clue as to what he was thinking. Whatever it was, he gave no outward clue as to what it was and my gaze shifted to his large book. What I could see of it gave no clue either, as I could not read the symbols. I sighed and shrugged. I had almost had another piece of the puzzle, but apparently I was not meant to have it yet. Whatever it was wouldn't change the fact that Orion was my friend and as such I would be here for him as long as I could be. Whatever that meant.

**~Gladiator Pit, Kaon, Normal POV~**

The gladiatorial arena in Kaon was a rather large business. The pit floor where gladiators fought and died was large enough for a regiment of bots to hold exercises on. It was two hundred mechanos on the short sides and three hundred mechanos on the long sides. The floor was made from crushed ore pebbles discarded from the foundries, because their concentration of metals was too low to be useful. Mechanical debris and burning heaps of trash were scattered across the floor at irregular intervals, creating endless opportunities for tactical ambushes. Surrounding the floor were four rows of seating, which rose to a ceiling a hundred mechanos from the floor. Lights in every frequency from infrared to ultraviolet were set up, drenching the floor in merciless light.

The stands were jammed with bots who worked in the factories and refineries of Kaon. The bots stomped their pedes in rhythm until each balcony bounced up and down nearly to the limits of the metal frames' tensile strength. The noise was overwhelming and over the course of the match it would grow so loud that the contenders would fight with nothing in their audio receptors except for a constantly maxed out white noise.

Megatronus had entered a pit, either this one or one much like it, over a hundred times. Every match he entered, he left victorious at the end of the match. The Tournament of Champions, the arena circuit in which he now stood, had changed the rules for those who faced Megatronus. His opponents were allowed to enter the pit first and given the choice whether to remain in bipedal mode or assume alt mode. They were also allowed to scan and assimilate anything their forms would allow to be used as camouflage for an ambush. Megatronus saw it as a cowardly way to fight, but it also worked in his favor. When he gave his opponent the first shot, and the opportunity to ambush him, and still came out victoriously, he looked invincible.

_There, _Megatronus thought as his optics locked on a large heap of discarded body parts. _My opponent is there._

It was the kind of scrap heap one would see in the aftermath of an industrial accident, when Cybertronians lay awaiting reclamation and reconstruction. It was an obvious disguise, but Megatronus had learned long ago realized that the majority of his opponents lacked tactical subtlety. It was hardly the first time an opponent of his used the same tactic his current opponent was and he doubted this would be the last time.

Above and around him the crowd thundered, cheering for the match that they had all come to see. Megatronus gave a slightly twisted grin as he threw his servos in the air above his helm and waved them, enticing the crowd into more of a furry. At the end of the match they would be cheering his name after he's won the match. No one could defeat him and he knew it.

Waving his hands in the air as if he had already won had two purposes. One was that it got the crowd on his side, they tended to favor a combatant who was full of confidence. The other purpose was to enrage his opponent. Any self-respecting bot would be angered by the sight of their opponent celebrating victory before the match had even begun. Angry opponents were careless opponents, who were dead opponents. The logic was flawless and more often than not worked just as Megatronus planned it.

From the pile of body parts erupted a single, large Cybertronian. The bot was easily twice Megatronus's mass and size and he carried a large mace. Megatronus was reminded of one of his most loyal followers. Powerful in terms of brute strength, but lacked the processing power it took to outsmart a retro-rat. The odds of this brute being any smarter than Lugnut were slim.

The brute charged Megatronus, holding its mace high, likely aiming to land a hit with it. Megatronus merely waited until the brute was within servo's reach. The brute swung his mace down toward his helm, aiming to crush his opponent's helm for an easy victory. Megatronus sidestepped and reached both hands up, grabbing the brute's outstretched servo and using the brute's momentum to toss the brute over his helm onto the ground on the other side.

The brute rolled with the toss and quickly turned, tackling Megatronus in his midsection. Megatronus gasped out some air even as he grabbed the brute's arms and spun, using the brute's ongoing momentum to aid in the process before he pried his grip off and tossed the brute through the air away from him.

_Smarter than I thought,_ Megatronus thought, straightening as the brute landed on his backplates.

As the brute rose back to his pedes, Megatronus rolled his shoulder-joints and snarled at the mech. The brute snarled back and grasped his mace before running toward Megatronus again. Megatronus lifted his fusion cannon and aimed it at the brute before firing at the brute's chest. The brute dodged to the side, though he wasn't fast enough to clear the shot entirely and the ball of plasma hit the brute's right shoulder-joint.

Megatronus saw the brute grimace in pain, but he continued his charge and swung his mace horizontally, intending to crush Megatronus' side with a savage blow. But Megatronus was ready for such a strike, and he dodged backward just as the brute was swinging and kicked the mace-wielding servo as it passed by, throwing the brute off balance and leaving the brute's backplates open for attack.

Acting quickly, Megatronus grabbed the great sword off his own backplates and jumped onto the brute and stabbed his sword into the larger mech's backplates, just to the side of the shoulder-joint Megatronus had shot moments ago.

The brute roared in pain and turned his helm to glare at Megatronus, and quick as lightning, the brute reached up with his right servo and grabbed Megatronus by the neck and threw him through the air like a sparkling would throw a toy when in a tantrum. Megatronus lost his grip on his great sword as he was tossed, leaving the sword embedded in the brute's back.

Megatronus twisted himself in mid-air and landed on his pedes, he slid across the pit floor for nearly a dozen anos before coming to a stop, one of his servos on the ground to assist in the stopping process. He snarled, glaring at the brute as he stood up straight again.

After Megatronus came to a halt, the brute reach behind his helm and pulled Megatronus' great sword out of his backplates with only a slight grimace. The brute looked at the great sword for a moment before he looked over at Megatronus and crushed the sword in his servo, causing the crowd to give a roar of approval.

Megatronus bared his dentas before both combatants charged at each other, crying out battle cries that couldn't even be heard over the roaring of the crowd in the stands. Both combatants delivered a punch to the other at nearly the same time. Megatronus's punch connected with the brute's face first, cracking the brute's dentas as the brute's punch connected with Megatronus's face. Megatronus allowed himself to spin around with the punch, using the momentum of the punch, coupled with his prior charge, to spin fully around and jammed the barrel of his fusion cannon into the brute's tank and fired.

Megatronus's shot went straight through the brute's tank and out the other side. The brute snarled and gave one last yell before slowly falling to the ground on his front, Energon leaking from his wound. Megatronus aimed his fusion cannon at the brute's back and fired again, offlining the larger mech before he had a chance to try to recuperate. Megatronus never left an opportunity for a severely damaged opponent to take him by surprise. Once the other mech was offline, Megatronus stepped on his chassis and held his servos above his helm.

"No one defeats Megatronus!" he declared loudly over the roar of the audience. "I STILL FUNCTION!"

He strode from one end of the pit to the other, pointing randomly into the crowd. "Would you challenge me? You? Anyone! Any five of you, any ten of you, challenge me now for everything I have ever won! No one defeats Megatronus!" Back in the center of the pit, he tore pieces of the brute off the corpse and hurled them into the audience for trophies.

"Remember!" he called out. "Remember that you saw Megatronus! It is the best day of your life! Remember it!"

The crowd's adulation rained down on Megatronus like life itself, like a fresh flow of Energon through his Energon lines. He drank in their praise as they chanted his name repeatedly, even as Megatronus held his servos in the air in victory, enticing the crowd to continue their chant. As astro-kliks passed the chant intensified and something odd happened as it did so. The crowd made a collective choice to end the name on a strong syllable, effectively cutting off the final syllable of Megatronus's name. Megatronus felt a strange thrill as his name transformed, as his followers gave him a new name that no other Cybertronian had held in the past.

"MEGATRON! MEGATRON! MEGATRON!" the crowd roared so loud that the whole stadium shook with the force of it.

_Yes, _he thought with a grin on his face plates. _I will be Megatron._

Now Megatronus was no longer. In his place stood Megatron, a mech who began without a name, who had earned his name. It wasn't a very long time ago that Megatron had been just another nameless mech slaving in the factories of Kaon and chafing underneath the crime bosses who had previously run the gladiator business. Now he had a name, and that name had transformed into what it was now, and now he was the one who ran the gladiator pits, having killed those who had run it previously. And soon he would lead the gladiators to a victory for Cybertron. He would lead them into a war that would end with him as Prime, leader of all of Cybertron, and with the caste system destroyed.

**~Maccadam's Old Oil House, Iacon, Normal PoV~**

Orion and Jazz sat at their usual table in the front right corner of Maccadam's. Orion had agreed to meet here instead of his apartment for old time's sake, if only because Ariel had said that she would keep Minah company. Ariel had taken Minah to her place, assuring Orion that she would be perfectly safe there with her and her two sisters, one of whom could take down any mech who might barge in and possibly harm their little friend. It did little to ease Orion's sense of unease that Minah was going to get herself hurt trying to help him.

"What we should do," Jazz said, bringing Orion out of his thoughts, "is go to Kaon and see the gladiator fights ourselves."

"Are you serious? They're illegal. It's not even legal to see one, I don't think," Orion replied incredulously.

"That doesn't seem to stop any of the bots who do it," Jazz pointed out. He drained his cube of Visco High Grade Energon and waved at the bartender for another. "We could go. If some authority discovers us I can claim it's a cultural investigation. It is what I do, you know."

That was true. It was the reason Orion Pax had ever met Jazz in the first place. It was Jazz's job to make sense out of all of the communications that Orion sorted through in the Hall of Records. Jazz had come into the Hall of Records looking for this or that piece of information from Orion so much that the friendship just formed. It was a discouraged friendship with them being different castes, but it was also an inevitable friendship. Orion was admittedly a little intimidated by Jazz's carefree attitude toward life and authority. Being in a higher caste, Jazz could get away with more, though he was a lot more interested in getting away with things than Orion ever was. Where Jazz saw an opportunity to bend the rules, he took it and always just a little further than was wise.

Orion took a sip of his own Visco. "Kaon is all the way on the other side of the planet. I've never been anywhere near there," he said. He had meant to be dismissive, but his words came out more wistful than anything.

Orion hadn't seen much of Cybertron. He had only been to a few places outside of Iacon in fact. He had heard transmissions from every nook and cranny, every tower and station on the planet. But he hadn't been to very many of the places he monitored transmissions from. He wondered if the bots who worked in the factories of Kaon had been to any more places than he had. He figured it was unlikely. They spent the majority of their time building machines, just as he spent the majority of his making data. Were they really so different? When he told Jazz his thoughts, the cultural investigator laughed.

"Yes, Orion, you're very different," he said. "Your job won't kill you and when you're no longer able to do your job, you won't get scrapped."

His words were like a physical blow and Orion winced. "You're not pulling any punches," he observed.

"Those who are fortunate should know how fortunate they are," Jazz said simply. Then he sipped at his Visco and waited for Orion to get his thoughts together.

"I wonder if I could get in contact with him," Orion said out loud.

"With who? This Megatron?" Jazz asked. He shrugged. "Possibly. Why would you want to?"

"You don't find him interesting?" Orion asked.

"I find everything interesting, it's my job," Jazz said. "But like you said our little friend said when you talked with her about it, things are not always what they seem. What if you meet him and he's not what you expect?"

"I will deal with that if the time comes," Orion replied. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "History moves in cycles. I've seen that much rooting around in the archives."

"I though you weren't supposed to be rooting around in the archives?" Jazz asked with a twinkle in his optics that was hidden by his visor. "Careful you don't push your boundaries." He said before finishing off his Visco.

"How can I not?" Orion asked. He finished off his own Visco. "I have a mind. I can think, and analyze."

Jazz waited the perfect amount of time before replying with a cheeky, "If you say so."

**~Meanwhile, Mina's PoV~**

I wasn't sure what to expect when Ariel said that she was taking me to where she lived with her sisters. She told me about them on the way though, making it look like she was talking on her internal communications while doing so. She had an older sister, Chromia, who was in the royal guard and who loved her weapons. She was a rough and tumble femme, from Ariel's description I knew I would likely get along with her. She also had a younger sister, Arcee, who was still a youngling. She had been put in the same caste as Chromia, which was lucky since if she had been placed in a different caste from either of them then she would've been taken to be raised by strangers.

"You mean they sometimes will put bots in different castes than their family?" I asked, looking a little irate as we walked into an empty turbo-lift in her apartment complex.

"Yes," Ariel replied, as the door shut and she pressed a few buttons. The lift began moving upward as she continued. "I was actually raised separately from Chromia due to my caste difference. Though once she could, she came found me and the three of us have lived together since."

"Hmph," I huffed a little. "That's such a stupid reason to split up a family. Wait, the three of you? What happened to your parents?"

Ariel sighed. "They haven't been a part of our lives since Arcee was a sparkling," she said. "Chromia and I have been the ones raising her almost since she was born."

"Oh," I replied sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's not your fault," Ariel said.

"Ok," I said.

I was silent the short remainder of the trip to the apartment she lived in with her sisters. It was only a few floors above the one we had entered the building on, not quite as high up as Orion's was in his building. The windows didn't show as far of a view before being interrupted by other buildings. Her apartment was bigger than Orion's, which made sense seeing as how he lived by himself and she lived with two other bots. Speaking of her sisters, I saw them the moment we entered and after they turned to greet their sister, they saw me. Ariel then launched into an explanation in her native language that I had no clue how to follow.

Both her sisters were blue, though they were different shades of blue. It was easy to know which one was who since it was clear the smaller one was Arcee, her being the youngling. Arcee was a darker blue than her eldest sister and she also had pink on her wrists, legs, the sides of her head and a small pink crest on her forehead that extended past the top of her head. She also had small wing-like appendages on her back that were clearly more for looks than function. She was looking at me with immense curiosity as Ariel explained my presence to her and Chromia.

Chromia was a lighter blue than Arcee was and she lacked the wing-like appendages. She had a hardened look in her optics, possibly from her job in the royal guard, but I got the distinct feeling there was more to it than that. She glanced at me periodically while Ariel explained and I couldn't quite tell how she felt about my presence. After Ariel finished talking there was silence for a few minutes as the three gathered on what appeared to be a couch and Ariel deposited me on a small table in front of them.

"Hi!" Arcee said happily, waving. It wasn't hard to tell she was still very young compared to her sisters.

I smiled and waved back, not quite as enthusiastically. "Hi," I replied.

"Who are you? I'm Arcee!" Arcee said happily. Her sisters smiled and just let us talk.

"I'm Mina," I answered. "Nice to meet you."

"So," Chromia said now that Arcee was satisfied with a proper introduction. "What brings you to Cybertron?"

"Fate? Chance? I have no idea," I said, holding my hands out helplessly as I shrugged. "It just…happened. I'm about as clueless as you all are for what brought me here. Not to mention why. I mean, out of everyone on Earth if someone had to come here, I don't understand why it was me. I don't believe it was just random, but I can think of no good reason for it."

"I believe it was Alpha Trion who said some bots are just destined for great things," Ariel said. "I spoke with him about you recently, while paying a visit to Orion."

"You've been visiting Orion?" Chromia and I asked at the same time. Chromia gave me a little smirk before we all looked at Ariel. Arcee giggled.

"My sister has a…um…" Arcee whispered to me, but seems to not know the correct word to use from the bot's limited knowledge of English.

"I believe that would be crush," I whispered back and we both giggled.

"I can hear you two, you know," Ariel said indignantly before chuckling.

That sent Arcee into a laughing fit and I couldn't but to join in when Chromia laughed as well. Ariel just glared at the three of us, though I could faintly hear what sounded like cooling fans over our laughter.

"Ok, ok," I said once we calmed down enough to talk. I looked at Ariel. "What did you talk to Trion about me? Unless you don't want to tell me, I'm ok with that."

Ariel chuckled. "We just had a discussion about your appearance here," she said. "We both feel there's a reason you are here. He seemed to know something about your future, but he wouldn't spill."

"You know, he did the same thing to me earlier today," I said. "We were talking and he seemed to know something Orion's gonna go through but wouldn't even give me a clue. And looking at his book didn't help, I can't read Cybertronian to fight my way out of a paper bag."

"Paper bag?" Chromia asked, raising an optic ridge.

"Human expression," I said. "Basically means I can't do it. Considering it would be very easy to escape a paper bag, you literally have to be unable to do anything to not be able to get out of one. Plus, I don't think anyone ever made a paper bag big enough to put a person inside…"

Chromia and Ariel chuckled at my attempt to explain the expression. Arcee had gotten distracted by the bag I had dropped on the table during our introduction and I glanced over in time to see her poking it.

"What's this?" Arcee asked.

"That is my bag," I said. "I use it to carry stuff with."

"Oh, kind of like we use subspace," Arcee said.

I chuckled. "Yes, but what I understand your subspace is near limitless," I said. "My backpack only holds so much. I wish I had packed some snacks in that thing when I left home for work, but I had no idea my trip home would be interrupted by whatever it was that brought me here." I chuckled, shaking my head. "And at the time I felt drawing supplies took precedence, because I didn't expect to need to worry about food."

Arcee chuckled. "Chromia tells me I should expect anything," she said.

"Indeed," I said. "But it's hard to expect something like being suddenly transported what was probably several hundred light-years away from home in the blink of an eye. I didn't even get to say bye to my dysfunctional, but good family."

"You miss your family?" Arcee asked.

I nodded. "Very much," I said. "But I try not to let it keep me down. I might see them again someday." I smiled, though I knew they could probably tell it was a sad smile even though my visor hid my eyes. I had learned that the bots could be very perceptive when they wanted to be.

"Like I might see Danni and Opi one day?" Arcee asked.

I glanced back at her older sisters to see Chromia had gained a hard look at the mention and Ariel was looking sad. I looked back at Arcee.

"I apologize, but I am unfamiliar with those words," I said in a subtle subject change. I didn't want to tell Arcee what those expressions told me.

"Danni is short for Danniluk, the femme creator, and Opi is short for Opiluk, the mech creator," Ariel explained.

"Ooohhh, so like parents," I said. "We called them Mom, short for Mother, and Dad, short for Father, where I came from."

"What were your creators like?" Arcee asked.

"My mom was really nice," I said, smiling.

"What about your dad?" Ariel asked.

I shrugged as if it didn't matter. "Well, he wasn't the worst dad," I said, saying about the only positive thing I could think to say about him.

Chromia and Ariel shared a look, as if reading the truth I didn't say in my statement. Luckily though, they didn't mention anything.

"What about siblings?" Arcee asked.

I smiled, happy for this topic. "I have two," I said happily. "Though my sister is married so I guess you could say three. They are all older than me."

Arcee smiled. "My siblings are both older than me too," she said.

"Oh really?" I asked in a slight accent, gaining a giggle from Arcee. "I would've never guessed. Thank-you for telling me."

"You welcome!" Arcee said. I let the minor grammar error slide since she was new to English.

Chromia rolled her eyes at my joking, though she did look amused. Ariel looked about ready to fall over in laughter. Oh it was good to be around a kid.

"So what do you have in your bag?" Arcee asked, her attention returning to my backpack.

"A few things," I said, sitting down and pulling it to my lap. "Want to see? I can show you what my family looks like….Well, most of my family."

"Sure!" Arcee said happily.

I couldn't help but grin. It was so nice to see a happy face after seeing everyone else so serious. I think Jazz and Wheeljack are the only ones I ever saw really enjoy themselves and it was always when they were bending the stupid rules. I shook my head to bring me back to the present as I pulled out my sketchbook. I vaguely wished I had my scrapbook with me, but since I didn't I only had one picture of family to share. I was always more interested in drawing cartoons than real life stuff until I had arrived here.

_Journal Entry #56 Good Times_

_In the future I knew I would always look upon my times with the three sisters as good times. Arcee was young and seemed to be very happy living with and learning from her sisters. Arcee grew on me the quickest of Ariel's sisters, but Chromia was definitely working her way to friend status as well. _

_The only complaint I could find from my time with them that day was that I lost my visor. We were talking and then started laughing and my visor fell to the floor where it got crushed by a laughing Arcee's foot. I wasn't so worried about the broken visor as much as the femme with a piece of glass wedged into her foot. It was a quick fix though and the broken pieces got cleaned up. I don't mind losing it. Wasn't really worth what I had paid for it. _

_We talked more and just hung out while waiting for Orion and Jazz to be done at that place they went to, I have no idea how to spell it. Ha. Imagine that. I can't spell an alien name. But hey! I'm just as new to their words that I can pick up on as they are to English. I shared my pictures with them as well, and Arcee so observantly noted that Ariel's helm was lopsided in my drawing. How embarrassing._

_I wasn't sure how many good times we would have in the future but I was glad for the ones we did._

_~Mina Castina_


	8. Meeting Megatron-Important Author's Note

**A/N: **Hey! I have an update! Finally, huh? I seem to be taking a good amount of time getting these lately. Ironically, despite the length of time it took me on this one...I actually got much of this done yesterday. XD Anyway, before we go on to the chapter I have a few things to say:

First is that I may or may not be writing the next few days, so that will delay my next update for It's a Prime Adventure. The reason for this is simple. I have a friend arriving here tomorrow and I will be spending the next few days making her feel at home here and stuff. I'm going to catch her up with Prime season 3, she's gonna have me watch The Lord of the Rings, I am going to have her watch G1, and we're also likely going to watch some NCIS, maybe some other things too.

The second thing I need to mention is very **_IMPORTANT_** to those of you reading this particular story. I have reason for doing what I am about to say I'm going to be doing. And here it is; this story is not going to be updated until I reach a certain point in Your War, Our Battle. I will still be writing this story, do not worry. Once I finally the story truly kicked off this will be one of my favorite stories to write, so why would I quit, especially this early in the game when I simply haven't gotten the chance to completely deviate from the book? No, I am not quitting on this story. It is simply that in the next chapter some things will be revealed that I don't want you guys to know yet until I have those things revealed in Your War, Our Battle.

Why does it matter? Because it does. Anyone who can guess why what happens in one story matters to the other story gets a virtual cookie. ;P And maybe an attempt at fanart of your choosing, just don't expect it to be awesome. :P

So while I won't be posting on this story for a while, I will be continuing to actually write it and maybe I'll put up a challenge in my author's note of YWOB to see if anyone in interested in getting a sneak peek. MAYBE. Not guaranteed. As much as I don't want to reveal certain things to you in this story(especially those of you who also read YWOB) yet, I can't simply put this story down for a while. So I will be writing on it, just not posting until I have gotten through chapter 17 of YWOB. You will see why that chapter specifically when it comes that time. ;)

Anyway, moving on. Enjoy the chapter! :D

**Chapter 8: Meeting Megatron**

_Journal Entry #76 Unhappy_

_It's how I felt every time Orion mentioned his desire to meet with Megatronus, who was apparently now named Megatron. The new name made me shiver more than the last one. Something about it reminded me of what a cartoon artist would name a villain. I still didn't believe that the mech Orion was so keen to meet was really someone he wanted to know._

_Jazz shared my concern over this even. The way he saw it, he figured Megatron was planning a revolution. Of the war variety. I wasn't sure what he planned, but I believe if he did want a revolution, he should give trying the peaceful way a chance before starting a war. The thought of war brought up those weird dreams I had told Trion about. And those made my stomach churn._

_The fact Orion wanted to go alone also made my stomach churn. He was going to the heart of Kaon. From what I understood, the bots there weren't exactly friendly._

_~Mina Castina_

"I don't think you should go," I told my large red and blue friend. "Something about Megatron gives me the creeps. What if he decides to hurt you?"

"He won't," Orion reassured me.

"You don't know that!" I protested, holding my hands in the air dramatically. "He could be planning mass murder as we speak!"

Orion stared at me for a moment in confusion. "Why are you so against me meeting him?" he asked after a few moments.

I dropped my hands to my side and flipped his question over in my head. "I'm not sure," I said. "But something about him makes my stomach churn. I just don't want you to go and then get hurt."

Orion sighed. "I will return, Minah," he replied. "Going to Kaon to meet with Megatron is not a sentence to offlining."

"I'm not worried about you dying," I said. "You're a big bot, you can take care of yourself."

"Then what are you worried about?" he asked.

"I'm worried he might lead you down a path that you will regret later," I said, looking up at my friend with tears in my eyes. "Just because he's spitting out good ideas and nice words doesn't mean you really want to know him."

Orion looked startled by my statement and I wasn't fully sure he caught the last part of it. After a moment he carefully scooped me up and brought me close to his face, nuzzling me slightly as I hugged him the best I could.

"I will not change my being, Minah," he said. "If I see he is going down a path I do not wish to follow, I will not follow."

"Ok, OP," I said, pulling back and wiping my tears. "I trust you. I trust your judgement. Go if you must. But you better come back."

"I will," he promised, nuzzling me a bit more before the door chimed and he went to answer it, me still in his servo. The door opened to reveal Ariel and her sisters, who had agreed to stay with me while he went to Kaon, since both the older ones had the day off.

"Hi!" Arcee chirped up at me and I smiled and waved at her.

"Hey 'Cee!" I said happily.

"Hello Orion," Ariel said with a shy smile.

Orion returned the smile, looking equally shy. "Hello," he said.

The group exchanged some words in Cybertronian before Orion deposited me in Ariel's servo, their servos brushing each other. I found myself smirking in amusement as I heard Ariel's cooling fans kick on quietly, their equivalent of a blush.

I smirked up at Ariel as soon as Orion was gone. "Ariel's got a crush~" I nearly sing-songed.

Her cooling fans picked up a bit as Chromia laughed and Arcee giggled was they walked further into the apartment.

"I do not," she protested in embarassment.

"Hey, I wonder if you have had any crushes before, Mina," Chromia grinned.

"Me? A crush?" I asked and then thought about it. "Nope."

Arcee giggled. "Not even a little one?" she asked innocently.

"Well, I had this little crush once...but it was on a fictional character thus it does not count," I replied.

Chromia laughed at that. "You sure are strange, kid," she said.

I grinned as Ariel gently let me off on the floor before she and Chromia took a seat on the couch.

"So, anybot have any ideas for what to do?" I asked.

"I want to play a game!" Arcee said, smiling.

"Sure! What kind of game?" I asked.

"What kind of games did you play as a kid?" Arcee asked curiously.

I smiled. "Well, my personal favorite was hide-and-seek," I said.

"How do you play it?" Arcee asked.

"Well, one person is designated as 'it' and that person closes their eyes, or optics in your case, and counts to a hundred while the rest of the people playing hide," I explained. "And after the 'it' person finishes counting, they start looking for the others and the first person they find is 'it' next."

"Ooo! Can we play?" Arcee asked.

"I'm up for it," I said and then looked to the adult bots. "You two want to play?"

"Nah, we'll watch from here," Chromia said.

"Ok," I said and then looked to Arcee. "You're it."

"Aww," Arcee pouted playfully before climbing onto the couch with her sisters and closing her optics.

I grinned and as she counted, I darted off to find a hiding place.

**~Kaon City Outskirts, Normal PoV~**

It was definitely a different atmosphere around Kaon than it was back in Iacon. The closer he got to the city, Orion had watched the scenery change from what appeared to be groomed and civilized to rugged and broken land. Orion imagined the Badlands were once an industrial area instead of the wasteland it was now.

Kaon itself was sprawled across a plateau three times the surface area of Iacon. A cloud of smoke and heavy metal compounds hung perpetually over it from the factories in which mechs toiled. The best way Orion could describe Kaon was that it was like an endless tumble of blackened rubble, imense mechanical structures collapsed in on one another, and newer generations of the same built over top of them. It looked as if it had been bombed and pieced back together by blind bots. Overall, the sight made him glad he had left his new little friend behind with Ariel and her sisters rather than bring her along.

Orion remained in alt mode until he reached the senter of the city where roads were tangled and conduits and catwalks were hung over them. It was near impossible to see where you were in Kaon without the satelite and Grid interface. There were no land marks or any clear way to tell where you were. There was no sense of space in location, unlike in Iacon where there was always something to tell you where you were in relation to where you were going.

Orion could not imagine living here from the time he had been sparked, but he supposed he would have been so used to it that he would know how to find his way.

Orion made his way to the building that Megatronus had described to him. The building was a pyramidal black monument, squared at the top for a landing pad. It served as a workshop for blackmarket parts to replace commonly damaged sensory arrays. Underneath the workshop was a gladiatorial arena where mechs fought to the death.

At the side door stood two mechs. One of them was black and white and was a couple anos shorter than Orion. The other was enormous, about four or five times Orion's own mass, tall and bulky with a single optic and carrying a mace the size of Orion himself. All three optics staring him down were a bright red, the same color as Minah's "blood" Orion had seen when the small femme had cut herself on those flimsy sheets she writes on. How she had managed to do that still escaped him.

"Match entrance is on the other side," the small one said.

"You must be Barricade," Orion said and then looked at the larger one. "And Lugnut, right? Megatron told me you two would be here. I am here to meet him."

"Just strolling through beautiful Kaon to meet the boss, huh?" Barricade asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Funny. The boss never said anything about that to us."

"You sure?" Orion glanced over at Lugnut. He thought he understood. Lugnut was one of those who would watch whatever happened until one of his superiers told him to act. "He must've told you, Lugnut."

Lugnut looked surprised that anyone was talking to him. "Could be," he grunted. "I don't always..."

"Shut up," Barricade snapped, lightly smacking the larger mech's shoulder. He glared at Orion. "You don't know what the boss said to who."

"I know what he said to me," Orion replied, leveling a calm stare at Barricade.

It was a standoff, tension filling the air at a palpable level. Barricade couldn't stand to be shown up in front of Lugnut, which would make him easy to manipulate. Or would it? He could be making it easy on purpose to test Orion. The possibility reminded him that Kaon was a long, long way from the Hall of Records in Iacon.

"Listen," Orion said, growing a bit tired of standing here and debating whether he was here to see Megatron or not. "How about I just wait here with the big guy and you go ask the boss? Easy, right?"

"I don't need you to tell me what's easy and what isn't," Barricade growled, but he was already heading inside. "Lugnut, don't let this mech go anywhere."

_Mech,_ Orion thought. _He's got to put me in my place._ It seems that gladiators wear their sparks on their sleeves. He wondered if he should have reacted more to the insult or if a reaction would've been too provocative. Then he started to think that maybe he was being too deliberate, overthinking everything he did and overanalyzing everything others did.

What else would he do? Megatron would've said. After being told he couldn't think and analyze for his entire existence, and now he had a chance to do so.

Orion Pax couldn't disagree with that assessment. And on the heels of that thought came another. He might've even said it before Megatron.

It occured to Orion that he was on the verge of becoming a revolutionary. It was, after all, a revolutionary act just to be meeting with Megatron, whose reputation was quickly spreading. There were rumors around the grid that Sentinel Prime was becoming "concerned" and the High Council was "considering action". If he himself continued with his present course of action, he too might draw the attention of the Council.

It was hard to imagine. A lowly data clerk catching the attention of the most important beings on Cybertron.

Still...what else could he do? Even Minah, who was wary about Megatron, didn't believe he should just do nothing. Every Cybertronian deserved the right of self-determination. Orion Pas believed this with all his spark. Megatron believed it as well, that was why he was here.

As if summoned, Megatron loomed in the pyramid's doorway. Barricade stood behind him, glowering darkly, possibly about being proved wrong.

"I see you've met some of the indigenous semi-intelligent life," Megatron said in way of greeting. He clasped servos with Orion. "It is good to see you in person, my friend."

"And you," Orion replied. Friend. There was a word he had not used often. Perhaps only with Jazz and now Minah. Perhaps he would use it to describe the other bots he had come in contact with thanks to Minah's arrival in time as well. He was not entirely certain yet if the word could be used to describe Megatron.

Inside, the pyramid was largely hollowed out. It was criss-crossed with girders and catwalks, seating surrounding the sides. It appeared as though only the farthest corners were used for manufacturing now.

"We have a separate aerial tournament that takes place here," Megatron explained. "I fought here one. I fight mostly underground, though."

"You're running it all now?" Orion asked.

"Barricade takes care of all the cycle-to-cycle details, and Shockwave handles keeping the gladiators healthy and putting them back together."

Far off in the dimness, Orion heard the skitter of tiny pedes he always associated with Minicons. He titled his helm slightly to be sure he wasn't hearing things, causing Megatron to chuckle.

"Soundwave spies on everyone," Megatron said in way of explanation. "Even me and especially you. This is how he demonstrates his loyalty."

As Megatron gave Orion a tour of the pyramid, they fell into a conversation. There were training rooms where he saw several mechs going through exercises. Most of them had red optics, but two caught Orion's optics as they passed. Two mechs, red and yellow, had blue optics, making them stand out among all the mechs who were clearly native to Kaon and similar cities. They glanced over and for a brief moment their optics met before Orion had to turn his attention away as Megatron led him else where.

Aside from the training areas and the main room, there was also a vast machine shop in which weapons, armor and parts were manufactured under watchful optics of experts.

"This all is for the gladiator pits?" Orion asked, glnacing over at his tour guide.

"It might be," Megatron replied non-chalantly. "Depending on what else might require the services of a well-trained fighting force."

A thrill sparkled through Orion's circuits then. "My idea is that we advance our cause by spreading the concepts of freedom and self-determination," he said, almost eagerly. "We talk, we argue, we convince. Sentinel Prime is slow to react; the High Council with dither endlessly unless a problem walks directly into their chamber and demand to be solved. I don't think armed insurrection is going to be necessary."

"Maybe that's what it looks like from Iacon," Megatron replied.

"It does," Orion said firmly. "You came up through the gladiatorial ranks. Every problem looks to you like it can be solved through fighting."

"And every problem looks to you like it can be solved through reading," Megatron replied.

"Sounds like a compromise is in order," Barricade interrupted. He had just caught up with them after running some errand. "And around here, Orion Pax, compromise means agree with the boss."

"Whoa there," Megatron stopped Barricade. "This is a scholar from Iacon. He's not an ore hauler or smelter you can threaten. Orion Pas is a friend. He is my friend, and the movement's friend." He locked optics with Barricade, whose ruby spotlight gaze was the first to drop.

"Understood boss," Barricade said. "No offense meant."

"None taken," Orion replied.

"Still," Megatron said, getting the conversation back on track. "We have talked and talked and talked of freedom. It is time to act. Some Cybertronians who are loyal to me are out searching for artifacts of the Primes across Cybertron. If it is granted we find them, then that will be a sign our cause is just. And others..." He trailed off, as if uncertain of how to go on, or if he should in present company.

"Others what?" Orion prompted.

"Our ideals have taken root in different ways, my friend," Megatron replied. "Some of the more combatative and fiery citizens of Kaon do not believe that ideas spread by talking. They believe they are spread by action."

"Then we need to distance ourselves from them before they do anything stupid," Orion replied immediately. "Violence at this stage will be counter-productive."

"Counter-productive? Not wrong?" Megatron asked, sounding a bit surprised.

It took Orion a moment to notice that the great gladiator was teasing him. "Of course, wrong," he replied. "Megatron, if a bunch of firebrands go around Cybertron destroying things and putting our names on those acts, our ideas will be tarnished as well. We'll be written off as radicals. We'll be defined by the worst excesses of our followers."

"Perhaps," Megatron said. "Another way to look at it is that if we truly believe in self-destermination and free will, we must respect the right of our followers to disagree with our methods and choose their own."

In a philosophical sense, of course, this was true. Orion knew, however - he could tell, could feel it right down to his Spark- that their philosophical discussion was not going to stay philosophical for long.

A time was going to come when he would have to insist on doing things his way. But that time had not come yet. Not here, on Megatron's home ground, among Megatron's followers, who did not yet know that many of Megatron's ideas in fact came from Orion Pax.

Of course, the reverse was also true.

"So, you are with me, librarian?" Megatron asked.

Orion looked around at the inner circle gladiators and other low-caste Cybertronians. He did not fit in here, yet he found he was not afraid.

"I am with your ideas," he finally replied. "They are my ideals as well."

"Excellent," Megatron said, a grin spreading on his face. He turned to the gladiators, who had paused in their work to watch them. "Cybertronians! My friend Orion Pax! Together we will lead all sentient citizens of Cybertron to a new age, a restoration of our former greatness!"

"MEGATRON! MEGATRON! MEATRON!" the gladiators around them shouted.

Megatron leaned closer to Orion as the chant washed over them. "Soon they will chant your name as well," he said.

"As long as they hold to the ideals," Orion replied. "They can chant whatever they want to."

Megatron laughed. "We need a name for our movement and its followers," he said. "Something in line with what other great movements in Cybertronian history have been named."

Orion had been thinking of that as well. He had considered it as long as he took seriously the idea that he may affect the history of Cybertron in some way. The archives at Iacon were full of long gone and forgotten movements that incorporated their beliefs in their names, one-word distillations of complete philosophies...

"Autobots," Orion supplied. "For we seek autonomy, and see it as our basic right."

"Interesting. I, too, had thought of a name," Megatron replied, but he didn't elaborate.

After a few moments, Orion got an alarm on his internal sensors. His optics widened briefly as he recognized what it was and turned to Megatron as his optics returned to their normal size.

"I am afraid I will have to end our visit, my friend," he told the gladiator-turned-revolutionary. "Something has come up that requires my attention back in Iacon."

"Of course, my friend," Megatron replied. "Allow me to see you out."

**~Meanwhile, Mina's PoV~**

I peaked out of my hiding place to check on my surroundings. I saw Arcee across the room, searching the area on the other side of the couch her sisters were chatting away on in their native language.

We had played several games of hide-and-seek and have yet to get bored. Arcee had a lot of energy and the game gave me an excuse to explore the apartment more thoroughly in search of hiding places. I had felt a little lazy this round, however, as I was starting to get hungry and tired from all the running around. As such, I had simply ducked into the hole in the wall that I had discovered early on in my stay here.

I giggled as Arcee looked around, looking a bit lost. After the first couple times she had found me within a few minutes, we had made it a rule that she couldn't use her scanners to pinpoint me. She had to search for me the old fashion way, the way we humans did it. She pouted at first, but then started to enjoy the game more now that it was challenging.

I was so intent on watching as Arcee futilely searched underneath the couch, causing her sisters to shift out of her way, that I didn't notice the rat-like creature sneaking up behind me until it was too late. I felt something pulled me back by my shirt and squeaked in surprise, reaching for the edge of the hole only to miss it. I called out for Ariel and Chromia, but by the time they discovered my location, whatever had a hold of me was already retreating back down the hole, my shirt, and by extension me, still in its jaws.

I growled as I saw the optic of my friend widen as it grew more distant and the owner tell the others what she had seen.

I twisted as best I could, my shirt twisting and becoming more uncomfortable as I got to where I was awkwardly running next to the large rat-like creature instead of being dragged along on my back. I triped a few times, but steadied myself using the rat-thing's side.

The rat glanced over at me with a red optic as it ran and then suddenly careened into a wall, slamming between it and the wall.

I felt my breath leave me before continuing to be dragged. I wasn't sure if it was some creature that thought I smelled delicious or if it was some kind of small bot that had some other reason of dragging me away from the apartment, but I wasn't about to go without a fight. I kicked out at the rat-thing's side, only now realizing that we were outside now.

The rat-thing let out a squeak of pain and lost its grip on me, sending me sliding along the ground, scraping up my back and then front a little bit when I rolled over, landing on my belly before the rat grabbed me with its tail.

Disoriented, I tried to pry the tail from around my waist to no avail. For a moment I thought I was going to be mechanical rat chow until suddenly I found myself, and the rat-thing, lifted into the air. I heard the tell-tale clicking and whirring of a bot speaking as I was gently pulled from the rat-thing's tail and looked up to find myself looking into curious and concerned red optics. I blinked as I tried to regain control of my breathing, finding that I was slowly starting to fully grasp the fact I was just kidnapped by a rodent.

The new mech clicked and whirled again before looking over to another mech with red optics as it spoke to him, taking the rat-thing from the mech holding me and staring it down. I blinked at the two, noting their different eye color from what I was used to and the frame difference, as these two both had a set of wings on their backs.

The one holding me was mostly purple and black, though had some silver on him as well. His companion was blue and white, with a bit of red on him. The blue one turned his attention to the small rat-thing and began to click at it suspiciously and it replied, making me realize it was a really small bot rather than an animal of some sort.

The purple and black one began speaking to me in his language, but I had only managed to learn a few words from Orion and the others, I couldn't make sense of anything he was trying to say. From his look of disappointment, I could tell he realized I wasn't understanding him, but that I was trying, which encouraged him to keep trying to talk to me.

It took me a little bit to realize we were walking and when I did, I had to fight the urge to panic. I thought for a moment before remembering that Orion had gotten a mini-tracker from Wheeljack for me in the shape of a watch-like device. It wasn't on all the time, but I could activate it easily enough, which I did when I realized we were a good distance from the apartment where Chromia was just exiting, likely leaving Ariel and Arcee behind.

**~Meanwhile, Normal PoV~**

Rattrap was not a happy cassetticon. Unlike Soundwave's other minicons, he did not enjoy the act of spying. Yet here he was, sent on a spying mission for Soundwave...again. He even had to venture all the way to Iacon. Granted Laserbeak had given him a ride, knowing the smallest of the minicons would've taken mega-cycles to reach Iacon on his own. This mission had to be done during the time Orion Pax was in Kaon meeting with Megatron.

"Of all the losey...why couldn't Ravage do this?! She's better at this sort of thing," Rattrap grumbled to himself as he crawled through the glitchmice tunnels, seeking out the right apartment.

When he found the right exit, he glared to himself. Apparently Orion had expected this kind of treachery and set a guard to watch the small entry-way. How Orion would know he would use the glitchmice tunnels was beyond him, but there stood evidence, even if it was looking the wrong way. He would have to dispose of this guard if he was to get his job done.

As Rattrap edged closer, he realized this was not another minicon as he had originally thought. This thing, this creature, had a different smell than his fellow Cybertronians had. It didn't smell of metal and it also didn't look to be made of metal ores and other things. It was...organic. But that couldn't be. Organics were merely a myth his creators told him bedtime stories about, because Cybertronians didn't leave Cybertron and wouldn't know of such things.

Then Rattrap had another thought. Nothing organic lived on Cybertron, thus this was obviously an alien. He didn't know much about aliens, except that at one time Cybertronians fought a war against an alien race. If Orion was keeping an alien, the boss needed to know and Rattrap would have to prove it. The only way he could think to do that was bring the organic to him.

Rattrap snuck up on the organic, who seemed to be distracted by something inside of the apartment. He was able to grab the organic easily enough and started to drag it with him back toward where he had come from as fast as his little legs would let him.

A side glance at his captive revealed the organic had twisted itself to run instead of being dragged, which put it in a position it would be able to fight him. To fix that, he slammed the organic, and consequently his side, into the wall of the tunnel. The organic seemed to black out for a little bit and it wasn't until he was outside that it gave him anymore trouble, delivering a kick to his side and causing him to release it to give a yelp of shock.

Growling, Rattrap wrap his tail around the tumbling organic as he continued to run, grinning in victory as the act gave him a better hold on the organic. He continued to run, only to yelp when a servo plucked him off the ground and took his captive from him.

"Well, well, look what the cybercat dragged in," his captor said, as he separated the organic and Rattrap.

"Skywarp, careful, that one looks fragile," another mech said, walking up. He took Rattrap and let himself fall back to talk to the little spy.

"What are you up to, Rattrap?" Thundercracker asked.

"Hello?! Do you not see the alien in your brother's servo?" Rattrap replied, gesturing to the other seeker.

Thundercracker glanced over at Skywarp and the little organic being sitting in his servo, clearly shaken, but trying to understand what his brother was trying to say to it with what seemed to be a look of concentration.

"I see it, but why were you dragging it around with your tail?" Thundercracker asked. "Where did you find it?"

"What's it matter where I found it?" Rattrap asked, rolling his optics. "It's an alien, and last time an alien was on Cybertron, it wasn't friendly."

Thundercracker considered this. Yes, aliens had been on Cybertron before. No, they hadn't been friendly. If memory served, Thundercracker remembered reading in his studies that the Quintessons had wanted to enslave all of Cybertron to do their bidding. However, he knew also that they couldn't jump to conclusions based on that one widely known piece of Cybertronian history. It was, after all, a lesser known fact that Cybertronians once were friends with aliens offworld.

"That doesn't mean this alien is unfriendly," Thundercracker noted out loud, watching as the alien continued to try to understand Skywarp, to no avail of course. "It doesn't seem hostile at least."

Rattrap made a snapping noise with his retrorat-like denta. "Just wait," he said. "It'll turn out to be just like the Quintessons."

Thundercracker somehow doubted that. Still, it would be nice to know just what the organic was doing here and where it was from.

"Hey! You gonna let me go? I got to get back to the boss before he misses me," Rattrap broke Thundercracker from his thoughts.

Thundercracker sighed and let Rattrap onto the ground. And raised an optic ridge when the tiny mech followed. "What?"

"My prisoner?" he asked.

"Is staying with us," Thundercracker said.

"What?!" Rattrap demanded and Thundercracker sighed.

"In case you forgot, Rattrap," he said sternly. "It is our duty to handle things that might threaten Cybertron, not yours. The alien stays with us. Now scamper back to Kaon where you came from."

Rattrap made that snapping noise again before scampering off as told.

Thundercracker watched the rodent go briefly before sighing and picking up his pace to rejoin Skywarp. He looked at the organic as it waved its servos in the air to quiet Skywarp. Once it had his brother's attention it said one word, pointing to itself.

"Mina? What does that mean?" Skywarp asked, looking confused.

Thundercracker sighed. "I believe it means that's its designation," he said. "Best place to start in communication is getting to know who each other are."

"Oh!" Skywarp said in realization.

For the rest of their walk to where they were supposed to meet up with their trine leader and brother, Starscream, Skywarp attempted to get the little alien to understand who he was. Of course, the hyper-active seeker still forgot to try to communicate his designation first.

It was a long walk.

It was a few kliks after they arrived at Maccadam's Oil House and settled at a booth far away from prying optics that they were joined by their brother. Starscream looked intriqued when they introduced him to the organic and they eventually got the organic to understand their names, after a few mishaps and Skywarp teaching it to call their trine leade "Screamer", which irritated the head seeker.

It was when they were discussing what to do with the organic that they were interrupted by a red, blue and silver mech.

"Excuse me," the mech replied.

"OP!" the organic suddenly blurted out in surprising clarity and ran over to the edge of the table, making Thundercracker worry it might fall off. It seemed to be perfectly aware of the edge, however, and stopped just short of it to chatter to the mech.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Starscream asked, narrowing his optics.

"Forgive me," the mech said. He told the still chattering organic something in a foreign language before focusing in on the three seekers. "I am Orion Pax, a data clerk in the Hall of Records."

"What's your connection to the organic?" Thundercracker asked.

"A friend and I found her a few jours ago," Orion replied. "Since then we have learned to communicate with her."

"If you know how to understand her, as you call it," Starscream said. "What did it say when you walked up?"

"She was telling me how she came to be here," Orion explained. "For she is supposed to be back at my apartment with some friends I left to watch over her." He sent the arganic a stern look and it seemed to look rather sheepish as it ducked its helm. "Something about a 'rat-thing' and then getting picked up by you."

"Rattrap," Thundercracker sighed. "We picked him up dragging this one along in his tail."

"Hm," Orion replied and looked down at the organic, a thoughtful look on his face. "But how..." He trailed off and began talking with the organic, who replied back quietly, looking down slightly, kicking at the table beneath its organic pedes.

"A glitchmice hole," Orion said, returning to Cybertronian. "Apparently she was playing a game with one of my friends and was using it as a hiding place, only to be dragged away by this Rattrap."

"Leaves the question of why he was there in the first place," Starscream replied.

"Hey, isn't Rattrap one of Soundwave's minicons?" Skywarp asked.

Thundercracker watched as realization dawned in Orion's optics.

"Megatron," he said quietly, probably intending them not to hear him. The name, however, had an obvious affect on the organic, as it stiffened and looked up at Orion with a look somewhere between concern and suspicious.

As the two held another brief conversation in the organic's language, Thundercracker couldn't help but wonder what the gladiator had to do with any of this. He had a feeling deep in his spark, however, that things were soon going to change and he could only hope that the little organic now climbing into Orion's servo wasn't the cause of anything bad, as it was clear Orion wouldn't allow them to take it with anything less than a fight. That was what he gathered from how close he held the organic anyway, and the organic seemed quite content to sit against the mech's chest.

None of the three believed it was a threat anyway, so the two left Maccadam's without any hassle, except that he kept them informed if possible.

_Journal Entry #77: Well That Was Interesting.._

_Well then, I guess I've had my adventure for the week. So apparently the rat-thing that had dragged me off was a mech named Rattrap and was a spy for Megatron, which made Orion realize that the gladiator was expecting him to betray him. It was a fact that made him uneasy, as if Megatron did not trust those he called friends, it did not speak well of his own trustworthiness._

_And the three mechs I had met as a result of my kidnapped experience were Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. They were part of Sentinel Prime's protection detail, though until recently Starscream had served only as as Air Commander of the Seekers, now he served as that and the Prime's personal bodyguard. From what I heard about the current Prime, I kind of felt sorry the poor mech had to put up with him._

_On the way back home, we met up with Chromia and the three of us returned to the apartment. It wasn't long before the hole in the wall was patched to prevent anymore spies from attempting entrance and once that was done, I ate and then retired for the night, deciding my day had been adventurous enough without waiting up to hear about Orion's trip to Kaon._

_~Mina Castina_


End file.
